Topicals skincare co-founder Olamide Olowe is the youngest Black woman — a Nigerian woman — to raise more than $2.6 million in venture funding for her skincare brand Topicals. The company launched in 2020, and two years later, it announced a $10 million financing round led by CAVU Consumer Partners.

The Gen Z brand is the fastest-growing brand at Sephora leading Olowe to be included in the Forbes 30 Under 30 list for 2022.

Olowe is a marketing genius using everyday Gen Z and Millenial social media consumers as influencers through its TikTok and Instagram marketing.

The Black-owned skincare brand hosts conversations around mental health advocacy, insecurities, women’s health, and other passionate topics Olowe’s generation support.

Topicals saw a large turnaround in revenue in 2021 and by the following year, the company sold one product every minute.

Even before its official start, Topicals made its mark as a brand when it established itself as more than a skincare company during the wake of George Floyd’s murder. During that time protestors were pepper sprayed by law enforcement and Topicals shared a thread of ways to treat skin after being tear-gassed.

“It took two years for us to fundraise and launch the business. We pitched to everyone, literally, everyone, and a lot of people turned us down. One investor called what we were doing ‘dormant demand,’ and said because it’s so taboo to talk about it openly, you don’t know the numbers around how many people have it. I also think people had seen so many beauty brands launch over the last few years that they didn’t see a skin-care brand being anything new,” Olowe said to Forbes in 2020.

“We’re so glad that we did weather the storm and wait to find investors that were perfect for us because we eventually did find ones who really understood. We were so excited to have Lerer Hippeau led our seed round, and we had participation from Issa Rae, Yvonne Orji, Hannah Bronfman, Bozoma Saint John, and the CEOs of Casper, Warby Parker, Allbirds, Bombas, and Harry’s,” she said.

“We’re really excited to have investment power not only on the celebrity side but also expertise on the CEO side. Obviously, times have changed, so we’re not going to do exactly what they did, but we take their advice, and kind of add the Gen-Z flavor to it. I think the combination of those two, plus having access to powerful women in Hollywood, has really helped us catapult as a brand,” she added.

Olowe is making a difference in the skincare world and inspiring entrepreneurs nationwide to dig beneath the surface while creating necessary products for women of color.

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