Announced in true influencer style (on Instagram), Freddie Harrel has raised $2 million from an all-female pool of venture capitalists to launch RadSwan.
WHO: RadSwan is described as a “conscious beauty brand built with, and for the Global African Diaspora,” that will sell a line of premium synthetic clip-in textured hair extensions, wigs, and accessories for women of color. The company will launch in 2020 shipping globally using a digital-first, direct-to-consumer model.
IN THEIR OWN WORDS: “My culture has taught me that my hair is just like me: multifaceted, soft, springy, and free. Hair is one of the ways we’ve always expressed ourselves, forever reintroducing our various angles to a constrained and biased world. Yet, my experience with shopping for these self-expression tools was just as constrained and biased,” Harrel said to the Evening Standard.
She continued, “Products are usually sold through retailers lacking an online presence and are managed by those who are unfamiliar with the nuances of buying, styling and caring for the products. In addition to that, they often source low-quality hair, which fits poorly, can be uncomfortable and ultimately overshadows the benefits of choosing to wear synthetic hair.”
“It’s been clear to us that there are no new and modern brands that speak to this consumer, in the way that brands like Glossier have emerged for the Millennial beauty consumer. That leaves a wide, open gap in the market for the modern black woman,” Nisha Dua, general partner at BBG Ventures, a VC firm that invests in female-founded tech businesses, told BOF.
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