Beauty Tech Company Mayvenn To Use $40 Million Series C To Expand Into Walmart

Mayvenn, a beauty-tech company with a network of more than 50,000 hair stylists nationwide, announced a $40 million Series C round led by Cleveland Ave with participation from the growth equity business within Goldman Sachs Asset Management and a16z. 

 

Mayvenn's mission is to use technology to empower the professional stylist community. The Mayvenn platform enables stylists to earn money selling beauty products and over the past two years has expanded into a marketplace, offering salon services through its curated network of beauty professionals. The services marketplace, combined with the e-commerce platform, lay the foundation for an end-to-end beauty ecosystem encompassing services and products. This unique offering financially empowers the professional beauty community and is simplifying the beauty experience for customers. 

 

This Series C round of funding will go towards Mayvenn's next big expansion of its ecosystem that includes a partnership with Walmart to bring tech-enabled, physical beauty experiences into Walmart's across the country. Funds from this raise will also support the continued expansion of Mayvenn's digital platform into more productivity tools for stylists.

Customers can currently find Mayvenn Beauty Lounges inside five Walmarts in Texas. These spaces are both retail shopping experiences for buying hair extensions and wigs and are virtual booking centers where customers can digitally browse local Mayvenn network stylists and book salon services. The stores generate both product sale, as well as marketplace salon services revenue. These retail experiences will be heavily augmented with technology and are the first elevated beauty shopping experiences that are inclusive to women of color. 

 

“In addition to innovating the beauty industry, Mayvenn is creating economic opportunity for independent stylists, who are primarily women of color,” said Hillel Moerman, managing director within Goldman Sachs Asset Management. “We believe that Mayvenn's omni-channel approach, combined with its direct financial impact on local communities, embodies the goals of our One Million Black Women initiative and we look forward to continuing to collaborate with the Mayvenn team as they scale their business.”

 

With plans to expand these beauty lounges to 400 Walmart locations, this omni-channel strategy will bring immense scale to Mayvenn's brand and platform, while driving income to tens of thousands of local hair stylists and small salon businesses.

 

“I couldn't be more excited to partner with Walmart to bring Mayvenn's brand and platform into the real world,” said Diishan Imira, CEO and co-founder of Mayvenn. “These Mayvenn beauty lounges are more than retail experiences – they drive digital bookings to local small salon businesses, bringing them added income, which is core to our mission. This expansion has the potential to elevate the beauty shopping experience for millions, while also scaling the financial impact to the community. The possibilities are endless from here.”

 

Cleveland Ave, founded by former CEO of McDonalds, invests in Retail Technology, and brings value to the partnership through its internal consulting firm Edge Consulting, which specializes in retail operations, and has experience working with Walmart. Mayvenn has attracted some of the most prestigious and strategic investors in technology, including a16z, and now by partnering with Cleveland Ave, has brought a new dimension of expertise to the business. The investment is additionally part of Goldman Sachs' One Million Black Women initiative, a $10 billion commitment to narrow opportunity gaps and impact the lives of Black women over the next decade across key pillars including job creation and workforce advancement.