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A college connection that birthed Topicals Founder Olamide Olowe changed the trajectory of her life. As AFROTECH™ previously reported, Olowe is behind the popular skincare company Topicals, which sells skincare products for people with chronic skin conditions such as eczema and hyperpigmentation. Founded in 2020, by 2022, it had become one of Sephora’s fastest-growing brands, selling one product every minute. Meeting Richelieu Dennis Olowe’s trajectory to founder was not her initial calling. In fact, she attended the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) on a full-ride scholarship to participate on its track team. Additionally, she was studying to become a doctor, she said during an interview on the “God Is My Creative Director” podcast. While there, she was introduced to another student, Rechelle Dennis, the daughter of SheaMoisture Founder Richelieu Dennis. “My freshman year, I’m standing there with one of my teammates, and a woman comes over to me and is like, ‘Hey, you...
If you’re active on social media, you’ve more than likely come across one of Topicals’ products. For one of its latest popular social marketing campaigns, the skincare company partnered with Black influencers for a brand trip to Ghana for “Detty December,” a time when people travel to Nigeria and/or Ghana to celebrate the holiday season. @topicals 10s across the board. #topicalsgonetoghana #freetheyouth ♬ original sound – ROMAN ZOLANSKI
People of color have long since endured hardships to create more visibility and diversity in the beauty industry. Support for POC in beauty has been an uphill battle to have their financial, social, and cultural contributions acknowledged, but still, many entrepreneurs continue to push the envelope to shake up the industry. Recently, two entrepreneurs — Olamide Olowe and Claudia Teng — set out to accomplish their goal to create their own skincare line that aims to treat skin conditions for all skin tones and provide quality products consumers can rely on, according to Black Enterprise . https://www.instagram.com/p/CAny1XLJtjm/?utm_source=ig_embed Topicals — a newly launched WOC-owned skincare company — was founded by Olowe and Teng to help people like them who have sensitive skin conditions like eczema, hyperpigmentation, psoriasis and more. Plus, they also aim to provide representation for people that look like them. “With my background in clinical research and dermatology, I saw...
Christina Betancourt Johnson has made history in the cannabis sector. The Washington, DC, native with 15 years of experience as an executive — per Honeysuckle magazine — is the founder and CEO of Standard Wellness Maryland, which launched in 2019. The company had an interest in catering to consumers as well as patients looking for premium products for their medicine. Its offerings include flowers, topicals, tinctures, vapes, and concentrates, its website mentions. At the heart of S tandard Wellness Maryland’s lies a mission t o ensure there is greater representation in the cannabis industry, and this became part of Johnson’s call to action to drive equity in partnership with Rooted Therapeutics, her first company. Benzinga reports that Standard Wellness Maryland’s existence is historic as it is the first v ertically integrated cannabis company in the United States majority-owned by an African American and Latina, according to the social equity office in Maryland. It is licensed to...
After co-creating the beauty app Beautified, Hannah Bronfman recognized the importance of investing in startups, which are often the last to receive funding or the resources needed to scale. Today, she takes pride in her work as an angel investor, helping to advise and raise venture capital for budding businesses. As a former DJ, content creator, and now trusted angel investor, Bronfman’s desire to help companies achieve their goals by putting investments behind them began when she joined Annie Evans and Peter Hananel as a co-founder of Beautified. This app allows users to book beauty services, including haircuts, manicures, facials, massages, and more, with various salons and spas offered on the platform. Since the inception of Beautifed in 2013, Bronfman has also become an expert in marketing. She’s advised companies on building a strategic online presence well before the rise of today’s influencer-driven marketing landscape. In 2017, she became an investor. “I started actually to...
Carmelo Anthony has launched a cannabis brand that will allocate a portion of its profits towards a good cause. Forbes reports the 10-time NBA All-Star player is launching StayMe7o Cannabis under Grand National, a cannabis-focused agency created in partnership with Lowd Cannabis’ CEO and Founder Jesce Horton and Chief Creative Director Brandon Drew Jordan Pierce. Anthony had connected with Horton when he first moved to Portland, OR, through a mutual friend. “We understand what the value proposition is,” Anthony told Forbes . “I grew up on the Grand National car, we just wanted to tap into something that was very timeless, combining the businesses of all three of us and what we bring to the table.” As for his motivation to enter into the cannabis sector, it was a culmination of remaining a student within the industry over several years and firsthand experience for sports recovery purposes. Among his chosen products were tinctures, CBD formulations, and topicals — all tailored to...
The time has come once again for AFROTECH™ Future 50 to celebrate those who are actively shaping the future. Launched in 2022, the annual list honors dynamic investors, future makers, visionary founders, changemakers, and corporate catalysts. Familiar faces that have been featured on previous Future 50 lists include Uncle Nearest’s Fawn Weaver, Topicals’ Olamide Olowe, The Gathering Spot’s Ryan Wilson, Fanbase’s Isaac Hayes III, and more. In addition to being celebrated on AFROTECH™’s digital hub and social media platforms, the Future 50 are honored at the AFROTECH™ Conference — the largest Black homecoming. To kick off the 2024 AFROTECH™ Future 50, we’re highlighting five individuals who embody each category to help you shoot your shot before this year’s list goes live. Check them out below:
A maternal health platform geared toward Black mothers has received funding to drive progress in its sector. According to The Brown Daily Herald, Birth By Us, co-founded in 2021 by UC Berkeley alum Ijeoma Uche and MIT pre-med student Mercy Oladipo, obtained $40,000 in unrestricted funding due to being a recipient of the 2024 Westly Prize for Young Social Innovators. The award was created by The Westly Foundation, which provides “funding opportunities that advance education, improve healthcare access, and support the growth and well-being of our children,” its website mentions. Additionally, the fund amplifies the efforts of social innovators such as Uche and Oladipo. “I personally felt so supported in a way I haven’t felt in a very long time. It’s harder to get the funding it needs to progress as fast as other companies,” Uche told The Brown Daily Herald. Uche and Oladipo are now backed in their initial calling to ensure Black women can receive better maternal health outcomes as...
Last year, Sephora committed a 15 percent pledge alongside founder Aurora James in an effort to show their support for Black-owned beauty brands on the market. Now the beauty retailer is recommitting its vow to honor these brands be reintroducing its 2021 Accelerate incubator program with a renewed focus, which for the first time ever features a cohort comprised exclusively of founders of color, a press release shares. Now in the program’s sixth year, Sephora is dedicated to evolving its business incubator — which previously focused on cultivating an international community of female beauty founders while supporting the launch of more than 50 women-owned brands — to reflect its recent commitment of increasing Black and people of color representation on Sephora store shelves. “Last year, we made a commitment to dedicate fifteen percent of Sephora’s assortment to Black-owned brands, and we quickly realized the role that our Accelerate program could play in not only helping us to...
DJ Khaled is another one of the many celebrities joining the CBD industry. According to Rolling Stone , the music mogul is partnering with CBD manufacturer Endexx Corporation to produce a series of lifestyle and wellness products made from hemp-derived CBD. Khaled, who has been the face of Silk Soy Milk and a proponent of self-care, says his interest in CBD stemmed from his “personal wellness journey.” “As a father, an entrepreneur, a music exec and visionary I am blessed with daily inspiration, a drive to work hard, and a passion for success,” the “POPSTAR” producer said. “CBD has become a part of my daily routine and allows me to focus myself and my energies, while striving to better myself every day. View this post on Instagram A post shared by DJ KHALED (@djkhaled) Endexx Corporation offers a range of all-natural CBD products, including oils, capsules, topicals, and pet products. “We are excited to announce our partnership with DJ Khaled,” Endexx Corporation CEO Todd Davis...