Kenyan startup Uncover Skincare, which makes cosmetics and skincare specifically for African women, has raised $1 million in seed funding to expand its business throughout Kenya and into Nigeria.
CEO Sneha Mehta, COO Jade Oyateru, and Advisor Catherine Lee started Uncover Skincare in 2020. Their goal was to change the African skincare industry by making products based on what today’s African woman needs.
While Mehta has worked with African businesses for over a decade, Oyateru is an expert in nutrition and consumer goods, and Catherine is an economist turned filmmaker.
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FirstCheck Africa, Samata Capital, Future Africa, IgniteXL, and angel investors Kwenhui Tawah, who used to be COO of SokoWatch, and Patricia Ithau, who used to work for L’Oreal and is now CEO of WPP Scangroup, all contributed to the funding round.
In two years, Uncover Skincare has raised $1.225 million.
Mehta said, “We are using the funding to launch more products, enter new markets, and step up our technology and data to effectively produce, reach, and market to our audience.”
African-made, but made in Korea
Even though Uncover Skincare’s final products may contain African botanicals, they are made in Korea in a way that guarantees the highest quality.
Mehta said, “Our manufacturing occurs in Korea (one of the world’s major beauty markets), where we are using the greatest technology, laboratories, and experts in the world who understand stability testing, safe chemicals, and for “We’re able to do what we say we’re going to do because women in our society have gladly given us information and tested our products to help us make them just right for our market.”market.”
Kenya’s Uncover African expansion
The business, which just expanded into a new category of skin care goods on its web platform, is ready to enter Nigeria in January 2023. Nigeria’s beauty industry, for example, has done very well in recent years, thanks to the country’s growing population and the rise of modern business.
Uncover Skincare also offers virtual consultations and other interesting content to help spread the word. The company’s co-founder says that these two features have helped sales grow by a factor of 20.
“We have had incredible traction since, and our community has grown from zero to about 60,000 women in Kenya in two years… “We have built brand awareness and loyalty, and our values of education, knowledge, and empowerment have been established in the market,” Mehta said.