A first-time entrepreneur has taken her afro haircare business from being valued at £125,000 on the BBC’s Dragons’ Den programme to over £3 million in just three years.
Kameese Davis, chief executive of Nylah’s Naturals, turned down an offer of £50,000 from entrepreneur Sara Davies for 40 per cent of her business after appearing on the TV show.
Davis, 41, from from Sandwell in the West Midlands, has secured £530,000 for a minority stake from the Midlands Engine Investment Fund and the West Midlands Co-Investment Fund — both backed with public money. Another £360,000 will be released if she can find private investors or funds willing to partly match it.
Bob Holt, the former chief executive of cosmetics firm Revolution Beauty, is joined as executive chairman and is one of the company’s largest angel investors.
Davis, a former part-time school careers adviser, said the fundraising would give Nylah’s Naturals, which makes a six-figure revenue and is stocked at Superdrug, a £3 million valuation. She will be able to employ a team of five and is in talks with Tesco.
She said the investment was significant given that research suggests less than 2 per cent of all venture capital money is allocated to all-female teams and less than 2 per cent to black and ethnic minority-led businesses, with only a fraction of that reaching black women entrepreneurs.
“Something like this not only serves as a fantastic opportunity for me and my business, it serves as an example for other black women to keep going, keep persevering. There are options out there, they are far and few between and they are difficult to get.”
She added: “There’s a certain amount of pressure on me now that I have secured this funding to be able to demonstrate for black women in business that we are investible and underestimated. We deserve as much of an opportunity as everybody else and also the room to make mistakes.”
