As traditional funding sources grow increasingly scarce, skincare brand Topicals is turning to the power brokers of culture for its business strategy; tapping athletes, artists, and tastemakers who don’t just follow trends, but shape them.
This week, the skincare startup announced it has closed a new round of funding backed by WNBA star Angel Reese and Nigerian global music sensation Rema, alongside other figures from the entertainment and sports worlds, as reported by Business of Fashion.
Since launching in 2020, Topicals has raised more than $22.6 million and has carved a name for itself amongst consumers with its creative, intentional, and culturally attuned brand identity and marketing strategies. A mentality that the brand’s founder and CEO, Olamide Olowe, says inspired the decision to bring in investors like Reese, Rema, and Davido’s manager, Asika.
“When you think of [Topicals], you think of our marketing, storytelling and products, and you think a lot about culture,” Olowe told the outlet. “These are people who control culture.”
At a time when Black beauty brands are forced to face the brunt of shifts in investor priorities, the Topicals founder says bringing in high-profile cultural leaders was also a strategic response to the challenging investment landscape.
“Investors are pulling back their belief in Black-owned … businesses. We are really proud that other people who have capital in the culture want [our kind of business] to grow,” she explained. “[The] ability to grow is stifled because they [Black-owned brands] are seen as brands that are only for black people.”
However, that is far from the truth, and Topicals is a testament to that. With a diverse consumer base, Topicals ended 2024 as “one of Sephora’s fastest-growing skincare brands,” and continues to lead in the beauty space. Yet, Olowe sees that “category-leading performance” isn’t enough.
“The operating environment for beauty has grown more challenging for early-stage and culture-led brands. The closures of beloved companies, some of the most innovative in our sector, are not anomalies. They are signals. Signals that the system is rewarding scale over originality, infrastructure over insight, and capital density over cultural resonance,” she wrote in an open letter. “At Topicals, we choose not to ignore those signals.”
Through this new initiative, Rema will take on an additional role as a creative partner, advising the brand on how to connect with younger consumers, particularly men. With plans to widen its customer base in 2026, Olowe says, “Topicals will continue to grow with the same discipline that got us here in order to build the infrastructure the next decade requires…The cost of doing business is rising. But the cost of losing culture-driven brands is far greater. Our commitment is long-term. Our conviction is unchanged. And the future we are building through Topicals is one where culture and commerce reinforce each other, not compete with each other.”
