Madison Reed is taking on the $50 billion hair care market one $45 dye job at a time. Over the past year the brand has quietly launched on QVC, launched a chatbot, opened a storefront called Madison Reed Color Bar, and raised $13 million in new venture funding. In addition to the funding announcement the company has hired Heidi Dorosin as its first Chief Marketing Officer. Previously, Dorosin was a General Manager for the Clorox laundry division, which includes some of the company’s best-known brands and flagship product Clorox bleach.
WHO: Madison Reed was founded in 2013 by Amy Errett, a former Maveron partner and a current special adviser to True Ventures. She told WSJ that she left venture investing behind when she realized how hair dyes sold at groceries and pharmacies failed to satisfy demand in a massive U.S. market. Madison Reed is disrupting the $50 billion hair care industry by using technology in creative ways to make the at-home hair color experience a more luxurious, fearless, happy process. The direct-to-consumer line has quickly become recognized as a category leader thanks to a nutrient-rich hair color formula crafted without ammonia, parabens, resorcinol, PPD, phthalates, and gluten—the irritating chemicals typically found in hair color. The brand started as a direct-to-consumer e-commerce player garnering attention for its simple-to-use hair color quiz and mobile app. Last year saw expansion on QVC and in Sephora, but 90% of the company’s sales are still direct-to-consumer, and the company expects to keep it that way.
WHY: To fuel growth.
DETAILS:
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