Myavana Founder Candace Mitchell once struggled to raise funding, but staying the course has led her to close a multi-million-dollar round.
Mitchell, who attended Georgia Institute of Technology and obtained a bachelor’s degree in computer science, launched Myavana with a $1,000 investment from her checking account and had a mission to improve hair care for Black women, as AFROTECH™ previously reported.
“Originally, my ‘why’ was really to provide a more personalized approach for people to really be seen and heard in the beauty industry,” Mitchell said in an interview with AFROTECH™. “Because, at the time, there were not many products catered to women of color or textured hair. And it just felt like it was just a huge oversight, and we were just kinda out there figuring it out on YouTube. I feel that hair is deeply connected to our purpose and identity, especially in Black culture. So my ‘why’ was just really deeply rooted in people understanding who they are and also having the technology that could cater to our personalized journeys.”
The company’s products, including MYAVANA HairAI, consider Black hair care and provide users with an instant hair analysis that will give them product recommendations personally suited to their hair type and texture, its website states.
Additionally, MYAVANA HairSI leverages scientific intelligence to unlock the condition of one’s hair, and the results will help to tailor a haircare plan that includes products, ingredients, and regimens, per its website. Users can also expect to be guided by hair experts who offer consultations virtually.
From Not Being Able To Secure Investment Interest To A $5.9M Raise
In January 2023, the company partnered with Ulta Beauty, bringing its HairAI technology to its e-commerce site. Ulta Beauty is building on its relationship with Myavana, serving as its lead investor in a $5.9 million raise, which included participation from Amazon, Reform Ventures, and New Age Capital, among others, per Crunchbase.
Generating interest from investors has not always been easy, Mitchell told AFROTECH™. At one point, she stopped raising money during the company’s early stages. Later, she embarked on a “nontraditional” path to funding, mainly because many still didn’t fully grasp the vision behind what she was building.
“When we started, a lot of investors did not understand our market and particularly didn’t understand the innovation that we wanted to bring, which I see now,” she explained to AFROTECH™. “We were 10 years ahead, so now it kinda makes sense. So for us to just formally close a seed round, very nontraditional, given that we’re 12 years in business, but I think the most important thing is it signals the right market timing.”
Mitchell continued, “I believe that is a huge factor in companies’ ability to raise money, but it also signals again that we’re really at an inflection point in our industry and really across the board. If we look at how AI is transforming every other industry, for us to lead that in the beauty industry for hair care is a really big thing… especially with the influence of having Ulta as one of our strategic partners.”
Looking ahead, Myavana is now positioned to scale beyond its first phase in business through its strategic partners over the years and enterprise clients, such as Unilever and Amazon. Mitchell aims to make the company more mainstream as years of research and development have prepared the company to license to all companies on the market.
The potential for Myavana’s growth is limitless, and its first retail location in Uganda signals a powerful step toward further disrupting the market.
Advice To Founders
Mitchell also shares some advice for other founders who are pushing for venture capital dollars. She received a helpful tip from REFASHIOND Ventures Founder and Managing General Partner Brian Laung Aoaeh, who had a chance to invest in Myavana but passed. Though he didn’t invest, Aoaeh assisted Mitchell by referring her to a fund that helped businesses shift their mindsets on customer acquisition and revenue generation.
Mitchell learned that company success is not always rooted in raising a large amount of money. Instead, she says that the priority should remain on building organic relationships and a trusted product that serves its target audience.
“I think that a lot of times when founders are not able to raise money successfully, they automatically think that their business is a failure or that they should quit because investors don’t wanna invest. That’s not the indicator as to whether or not your business is needed in your market, whether it will be successful,” she mentioned to AFROTECH™. “Investors have so many reasons as to why they pass, so you can’t just rely on that alone. That helped me become not dependent on funding to feel like my business would be successful, but it helped me to understand that, OK, I need to really just focus on customers and growing revenue. The basics of business, I felt like our perception has been skewed in the tech start-up and VC world because everything is so focused on raising funding instead of mastering the fundamentals of business that will help you even build out your product.”
She added, “Not using funding to dictate your success is very important because it also shifts your relationship with investors… Sometimes, when you need the money, you can end up being in a very desperate position and just take any deal. And I’ve seen a lot of founders who have lost significant equity because of that or bad deals. If we can keep our headspace in the right place and know that we’re the ones bringing value to investors as well, it helps us just kind of identify the right things to look at but most importantly align with the right investors.”
