Black-owned parent company Listener Brands — which is home to award-winning textured hair care brands CurlMix and 4C ONLY — has just announced the launch of its new equity crowdfunding campaign for CurlMix to aid consumers in unlocking their chance to achieve generational wealth.
The brand shares that the campaign aims to empower consumers to invest in the brands they already shop with and also contribute to Listener Brands’ future growth as they make noise in the beauty and wellness spaces.
“Many of us spend years supporting companies with our hard-earned dollars, but we see nothing for it when the brand eventually sells, transferring the wealth outside of our community,” Listener Brands CEO and Co-Founder, Kim Lewis, shares in a press statement. “Our goal is to create opportunities for our community to increase their wealth. Our vision is to change the narrative on what ownership looks like. We aim to become the first Black-owned publicly traded beauty conglomerate.”
As told to AfroTech via email, Kim believes the time was now for the crowdfunding campaign to launch as new rules are allowing consumers to enter the long-term investor game.
“My husband and I have been discussing selling shares to our customers for over a year but the limitations around crowdfunding only allowed $1M up until March 15th,” she says. “The new limit is now $5M with Regulation Crowdfunding. So we thought it was the perfect time to launch our campaign with the new laws.”
According to a press release shared with AfroTech, CurlMix — which was founded by Kim and her high school sweetheart turned husband Tim Lewis on the Southside of Chicago — was a brand created to provide clean beauty solutions and simple hair regimens.
Since the brand launched back in 2015, it has seen exponential growth from its partnerships with investors such as former LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner and Arlan Hamilton of Backstage Capital.
Additionally, the brand’s valuation has grown to be approximately $25 million and that number has continued to climb amid the COVID-19 pandemic, garnering $6 million in online revenue during 2020. The crowdfunding campaign — which launched yesterday — has since raised over $1,660,000 and counting.
With an overall goal of raising upwards of several million dollars, CurlMix and Listener Brands aims to use the funds to achieve the following:
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- Expand in CPG categories beyond haircare and create more engaging marketing campaigns that better identify with their thriving communities
- Acquire a larger customer base
- Launch additional brands under Listener Brands
Listener Brands wants to change the narrative around consumers and opening up investment opportunities to everyday supporters by directly giving them a way to democratize their wealth. With hopes of offering more than just a product to consumers, CurlMix wishes to spark a change all brands can follow after.
“For many of our customers, it is their very first time investing ever. At least 100 customers had never invested in anything before. To me, that makes my heart soar,” Kim shares with us. “To know that they are beginning to have wealth conversations and learn how to attain it, and the fact that CurlMix is the reason they are having those conversations is so fulfilling. I am happy to know we can give people the chance to build generational wealth and have awesome hair.”
For more information about the crowdfunding series and how to invest in CurlMix, click here.
