The natural haircare beauty market will soon have a new go-to source for its next innovation.
Black women-owned beauty brand You Go Natural (YGN) headwraps has announced the close of a $2 million seed funding round as it looks to expand its operations.
According to a press release shared with AfroTech, the funding round was led by Brand Foundry Venture Partners as well as other investors such as Capital Factory, Willow Growth Partners and Lightspeed Venture Partners.
YGN has shared that its next plan of action for the funds includes the round expanding its Dallas-based production facility from 1,500 to 7,500 square feet and growing its staff to reach over 100 employees.
“As a Black female founder, I have unique market insight into the world of ethnic beauty,” founder Monique Little shared in a statement. “I know where the industry is way oversaturated, and I know where there are gaps in innovation and solutions that have yet to be introduced. The vision of YGN goes way beyond headwraps. We are building the go-to source for innovation in natural beauty.”
The startup also has plans to innovate and add new products to the brand, including a new line of waterproof swim turbans — to be lined with silicone to help women avoid getting their hair wet — which is set to launch this summer.
Little — who was recently named to the inaugural Forbes Next 1000 list earlier this year — founded YGN back in 2016 in an effort to create new ways women could protect their natural hairstyles.
YGN’s brand magic comes from its choice to utilize domestic production, which is considered a forgotten skill that’s being brought back to the Dallas workforce.
“Not only does this affect the lives of our employees,” Little said in a statement, “but it affords us the ability to create innovative concepts in the market and present them to our customers at light speed in comparison to other e-commerce brands.”
With an expansive line of products that includes T-Shirt Buns, T-Shirt Turbans and more, YGN today stands as a multi-million dollar company that has produced and shipped pre-tied headwraps to over 50,000 customers.
According to Little, the brand has “quite an ambitious product roadmap that we plan to roll out over the next one to two years,” and intends to explore other retail channels in the near future. She also predicts the brand’s revenue will increase five-fold sometime this year.
For more information about You Go Natural, visit its website.
