Dae is a curated haircare brand that was born in and inspired by the deserts of sunny Arizona. Founded by hairstylist and social media influencer Amber Fillerup, the simple, efficacious, and sensorial range offers clean, vegan, and cruelty-free formulas that make you want to wash your hair. Every product is infused with desert-derived botanicals that treat, protect, and restore hair to its healthiest and shiniest. Ideal for all hair types and textures and infused with dreamy, desert-inspired signature scents, the line was intentionally crafted to encourage true tranquility.
At Dae, every product has been intentionally crafted with clean ingredients that are safe and effective, and all formulations are loaded with nourishing ingredients derived from desert botanicals that have worked for centuries to revive hair to its healthiest and shiniest.
Founder: Amber Fillerup Clark
Founded: January, 2020
Leadership:
2023 Full Year Expected Revenue Range: $10 to $20MM
Category: Haircare
Distribution Channel: Prestige
Funding: Venture Capital
Total Funds Raised: $10.6MM
In July 2021, Dae Haircare secured $2.6 million in its first capital raise from Willow Growth Partners.
In December 2022, Dae Hair closed an $8 million Series A led by Verity Venture Partners with participation from Digital Brand Architects (DBA), Whitney Port, Aimee Song, Christine Andrew, and with continued participation from existing investor Willow Growth Partners.
Notable Investors:
What are some of your key business initiatives for 2023?
Dae raised a Series A of $8 million. The strategic raise will support Dae’s current business foundation, leadership, and trajectory. The funding will lead to the expansion of strategic hires on the executive team in Q1 2023, and filling out support roles across operations, marketing, and sales.
To diversify new users and dovetail with the brand’s and Amber’s loyal community, Dae will be investing in strategic marketing and media advertising. The brand will be investing into first-in-class content, lifecycle marketing initiatives, and bringing innovation to customer experience. Dae will further support its exclusive strategic retailer, Sephora, to drive acquisition and loyalty with strategic merchandising, in-store education, events, and social campaigns all driving to the retailer.
With the funding, Dae will unveil a thoughtful range of new innovation in early Q1 through the end of the year, expanding on core offerings and rolling out innovative, clean styling products.
What are you most proud of having accomplished?
My goal has always been to create a haircare line that is simple, effective but also has unique textures, aromas, and colors. Even our treatment-based multitasking products not only simplify your routine, but just like our core products, they have unique textures, aromas, and colors. I am so happy to see the brand take off! Sephora has been such an incredible partner in my brand’s growth trajectory, and I am so grateful. Above and beyond creating and launching this brand, I was also focused on building out an executive team while leading the funding. This has been such an incredible journey and a huge personal achievement I am so proud of.
What has been the biggest surprise since the brand was founded?
A really pleasant surprise was seeing my community support the brand and see their loyalty be so steadfast with the launch of Dae. Our community truly has been such a huge reason for the success from the start! I love seeing that community grow! And I love being re-energized by how the social media space continues to evolve.
What aspect of your brand DNA fuels your competitive advantage?
Dae products are intentionally crafted clean with performance at the center; a curated hair care brand that was born in and inspired by the deserts of sunny Arizona. Every product is infused with desert-derived botanicals that treat, protect, and restore hair to its healthiest and shiniest. Ideal for all hair types and textures and infused with dreamy desert-inspired signature scents, the line was intentionally crafted to encourage true tranquility.
In our opinion, clean is table stakes. It is the performance and the care of hair and scalp that we focus on perfecting and simplifying while making the experience a delightful one. While innovating beautiful, effective, and sensorial products, Dae is also elevating the shower experience with clean, simple haircare and deeply sensorial experiences. Because our products are intentionally crafted to encourage self-care and tranquility, we make shower time something to look forward to. We realize the haircare industry can be overwhelming, so we took this opportunity to provide a streamlined collection that makes selecting products easier for consumers.
Please share your insight on the future of the beauty industry.
Within the last year, we have seen an upward trajectory of trends relating back to both skinification of hair and also the growth of the premium haircare category; in fact the industry is expected to double in size by 2024. Similar to the at-home skincare boom, we are finding both internally, and as an industry, consumers leaning into more premium, clean, and multitasking products that amplify their hair routine.
This past year, we have seen a movement of the consumer’s interest towards clean haircare―and looking for that clean haircare option within the prestige space specifically. The category continues to grow year over year, and we don’t see that slowing any time soon. Just like what we have seen with skincare, the consumer has become more savvy and is looking for the best in terms of performance and quality.
What is the best piece of advice you’ve been given?
The best advice I ever received was “create a life where you never have to ‘work’ because you enjoy what you do so much.” In many ways I have followed this advice, which keeps me passionate and excited about what I do!
Paying it forward, what advice would you give to someone contemplating launching a beauty brand?
I would say, do something that you are incredibly passionate about and think about the big picture. It is really hard to launch a company but even harder to do the mundane things it takes to keep it running day in and day out, so it helps when you love what you do.
If you could change one thing in the beauty industry, what would it be?
I love seeing the beauty industry getting to a place that truly represents and showcases natural beauty―but for real. For our brand, I want people to see a photo of one of our models with wrinkles. I want them to realize their wrinkles can be beautiful, or that they don’t always have to cover up their zits. Little things like that make such a big impact. We don’t retouch anything; we often don’t put much makeup on our models. We want everything to feel natural. This is a comfort brand.
