Ghana’s SkinGourmet has been named the winner of the 2017 Dark & Lovely And She Leads Africa Beauty Accelerator Demo Day. The Demo Day was the closing ceremony of the 10-week entrepreneurship development programme which is run to support early-stage entrepreneurs who are building businesses in the beauty industry. Other winners are Beauty Revolution from Nigeria and FreshMe from South Africa came second and third respectively.
Over the past 10 weeks, 5 beauty businesses have worked with mentors and advisors such as Nneka Keshi, Digital Director at L’Oreal for Sub-Saharan Africa; Tresor Mpasa-Engwanda, Brand Director of African Beauty Brands at L’Oreal for Sub-Saharan Africa and Afua Osei, CEO and Co-Founder of She Leads Africa.
Hosted at OPEN Sandton in Johannesburg, the 5 entrepreneurs pitched their innovative businesses to a range of industry stakeholders, media and investors for a chance to win cash prizes.
Nneka Keshi, Digital Director at L’Oreal for Sub-Saharan Africa explains: “This program is very important to Dark and Lovely because our brand mission is built around empowering women. We wanted to empower and support young women entrepreneurs across Africa. Dark & Lovely and She Leads Africa was committed to going the distance and delivering hands-on work with beauty businesses from across Africa. We are incredibly impressed with the quality and scalability of the businesses we’ve worked with.”
Afua Osei, Co-Founder of She Leads Africa said, “It’s been an incredible journey watching these entrepreneurs grow over the past ten weeks. Each company has transformed into a business with the potential to grow across Africa. Congratulations to all the entrepreneurs who participated in the program. We look forward to seeing where these businesses will be in a year’s time!”
Meet the winners
The first place winner was Violet Amoabeng of Skin Gourmet from Ghana: Violet is the Founder of Skin Gourmet, a premium skincare range sourced from the wild, so pure you can eat it!
The second place winner was Louisa Kinoshi of Beauty Revolution Studio from Nigeria: Louisa is the Co-Founder of Beauty Revolution Studio, a digital beauty network for African women.
The third-place winners were Sherri Rhode, Deveash Jivan and Lendl Rhode of FreshMe from South Africa: They are Co-Founders of FreshMe which takes brands to salons and brings people to brands in the informal salon market.
The other two entrepreneurs who pitched are:
Mathebe Molise of Beauty on TApp: Mathebe is the Founder of Beauty on TApp, a mobile application that is a directory of beauty service and product providers. (South Africa)
Aniouvi Gnassounou of Black Beauty Fair: Aniouvi is the Co-Founder of Black Beauty Fair, a trade show dedicated to the business industry in West Africa. (Cote d’Ivoire)
The application for the Dark and Lovely and She Leads Africa beauty accelerator programme opened back in August. The beauty accelerator is a 10-week entrepreneurship development programme to support early-stage entrepreneurs who are building businesses in the beauty industry.
