Kenyan skincare startup Uncover gets $1.4m for Ghana, Uganda expansion
TLDR
- Uncover, a Kenyan skincare marketplace, secures $1.4 million in seed funding for expansion into the US, Ghana, and Uganda.
- Founded in 2021, Uncover utilizes user-provided data to create personalized skincare products in labs based in South Korea.
- The company distributes its products through an e-commerce platform and retail partnerships with pharmaceutical chains like Goodlife and Medplus in Kenya and Nigeria.
Uncover, a Kenyan marketplace for skin care products, has raised $1.4 million in seed funding to expand into the US, Ghana, and Uganda.
Launched in 2021 by Sneha Mehta and Jade Oyateru, Uncover uses data provided by users on its app—through quizzes and other interactions—to create personalized skin care products with labs in South Korea. The company distributes these products through its e-commerce platform and retail partnerships with pharmaceutical chains like Goodlife and Medplus in Kenya and Nigeria.
This is Uncover’s third funding round. It raised $100,000 in a 2021 pre-seed round from Antler VC and a $1 million seed round in 2022. In its latest funding round, Uncover provided exits for early investors through a secondary sale, according to its CEO.
Key Takeaways
The demand for beauty and personal care products is growing rapidly in Africa, yet there's still a gap in consumer offerings. Fake cosmetics and skin-whitening products pose risks, while global brands that import to the continent are often expensive and not tailored to Black skin. According to Technavio, a global market research firm, Africa’s beauty and personal care market is expected to grow by $6.65 billion from 2023 to 2027. This potential has attracted global players such as L’Oréal and Rihanna’s Fenty Beauty to sell on the continent. However, their products are still predominantly focused on Western markets.
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