November 26, 2024 • 52 mins
Join us for an inspiring conversation with Jade Oyateru, co-founder and COO of Uncover, as she shares her remarkable journey of creating a skincare brand that beautifully blends African botanicals with Korean beauty technology. Discover how Jade, influenced by her beginnings in Lagos and her educational experiences in the UK, is reshaping the skincare industry for women of color. From her corporate career with giants like Nestle and Unilever to co-founding a groundbreaking brand, Jade's story is one of perseverance, cultural influence, and a relentless mission to empower and elevate African beauty on a global platform.
Explore Jade's transition from a structured corporate environment into the dynamic world of entrepreneurship and how a pivotal career moment, guided by a mentor, led her to Unilever Kenya and eventually to launching Uncover. With a strong foundation in marketing and brand ownership, she unveils the art of building and scaling a brand, emphasizing the power of strategic partnerships and the importance of a shared vision. Get a front-row seat to the challenges and triumphs of scaling a female-focused brand in a market saturated by FinTech, and learn how storytelling can be a powerful tool in attracting investment and fostering growth.
In the realm of beauty supply chains, Jade provides a candid look at the complexities of sourcing, manufacturing, and logistics in the African market. Hear her discuss the strategic decision to partner with Korea to offer top-notch, affordable skincare solutions to African women. As Jade navigates the hurdles of balancing quality with cost, her commitment to delivering value stands out, even in the face of economic challenges. This episode is a treasure trove of insights, advice, and encouragement for aspiring entrepreneurs and those passionate about redefining beauty standards.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hi there and welcome to another episode of African
Business Stories.
Africa is the only region inthe world where more women than
men choose to be entrepreneurs.
What this says to me is thatthe story of business in Africa
is the story of the Africanbusinesswoman.
So we are on a journey ofdiscovery to find these women
(00:23):
and tell their stories.
On the show, we will hear fromfemale innovators and
entrepreneurs building andrunning businesses in Africa.
They will share the highs andlows of their entrepreneurial
journey and lessons learnedalong the way.
Some of these women you mayknow, and many you may not, but
(00:47):
I assure you that all theirstories are inspiring in their
own right.
My hope is that these storieswill inspire you to reach for
your dreams and leave a legacyfor generations to come.
It makes such a big differenceto us if you can rate, review
and share our episodes.
You can do this mainly on ApplePodcasts, and you can find us
on all podcast platforms Ifyou're in Africa.
(01:09):
Spotify is now available, socheck us out there and don't
forget to rate, review and share.
Today I chat with Jade Oyetoro,the co-founder and chief
operating officer at Uncover, atrailblazing skincare brand
redefining African beauty.
Oncover combines the richnessof African botanicals with
(01:34):
cutting-edge Korean beautytechnology, delivering products
that resonate with customersglobally.
Since its launch in 2020, thebrand has raised over $3 million
and recently launched into theUS market.
In this episode, Jade sharesher incredible journey from
building global local brands formultinationals to launching her
(01:57):
own brand.
Uncover Scaling a brand acrossAfrica, the dynamics of having a
co-founder, and practicaladvice on positioning for a
successful fundraise.
Whether you're an entrepreneur,a beauty enthusiast or simply
someone interested in stories ofinnovation and growth, this
(02:18):
episode is packed with insightsyou won't want to miss, so let's
get into it.
Hi Jade, Welcome to AfricanBusiness Stories.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Hi Akego, so excited to be here.
Thank you so much for invitingme to this podcast.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
Thank you.
I think you're my first guestin the beauty space, so this is
going to be a really interestingconversation.
So I know that you're Nigerianand I'm not wanting to assume
that everybody's born and raisedin Lagos, but just wondering
where you were born and raised.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Yeah, so yes, I'm Nigerian, born and raised in
Lagos, so that's a correctassumption.
I spent, I'll say, the first 15years of my life in Lagos, so I
am definitely a very proudNigerian and Lagosian if I can
say that.
I'm definitely a very proudNigerian and Lagosian if I can
say that Nigeria is always andwill always be home no matter
how.
I always say no matter where youfind yourself, you're true and
(03:11):
core and you're still here inNigeria at heart.
And no matter what we do, asthey always say, nigeria will
carry last.
Just carrying that mantra withme, no matter where I am in the
world or what I find myselfdoing.
For sure that's always been astrong one for me, yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
So where did you go at 15?
You said you were there until15 yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
So at 15 I moved to the UK.
So growing up like I was notwas I am the fifth of six
children growing up.
I've got I've got like fourolder siblings, and once you're
done with secondary school orhigh school, the next thing was
going off to do your a-levels oruniversity in the UK.
I think for me that was, butnow that I think back about it,
(03:52):
I did with someone with kids.
I'm like how many.
I have a child who's almost 10.
I don't know if I can ship thisguy off to somewhere by himself
in five years time, but anyway,that was me.
At 15 I went off to the UK.
Of course I had older siblingsthere, so I wasn't just by
myself to.
I did my first levels offoundation course and then went
(04:14):
off to University of Surrey whenI was about 17.
So actually I started quiteearly because, yeah, you should
be 18 to start you should be 18to start.
You should be 18 to start uni.
I actually started when I was17.
And I remember being told whichis weird, nobody has that but I
was given like a school mother,if that's what we would call it
one way in Nigeria.
So it was one of the professorshad to sign to be my guardian
(04:37):
as a 17.
Wow, coming to uni, which wasquite interesting, but yeah, so
that's where I guess I spent thenext 10 or so years of my life
in the UK, going through uni,and at the time it was very
interesting for me because whenI was applying for my what was
it called?
Acas or UCAS?
I can't remember UCAS, ucas yeahexactly, and I remember being
(04:59):
so stuck what am I applying for?
What do I want to go to uni?
What do I want to go to uni?
What do I want to study in uni?
And all of that.
I ended up doing nutrition.
But there's a whole storybehind behind that.
But anyway, back to yourquestion.
At 15 I was shipped off to theUK, very thankful and obviously
grateful for that experience aswell just for the benefit of our
(05:19):
guests who are like what in theworld is UCAS?
Speaker 1 (05:22):
So UCAS is like the admission process for getting
into university or college inEngland.
So just to explain that forpeople.
So is there any fond childhoodmemory you'd like to share,
whether from your time inNigeria or from your early days
in England?
Speaker 2 (05:39):
I think for me anytime I just try to remember,
I think it was just every time Ithink my happy place was just
always around community andfamily and I think most
Nigerians always at that, Ithink at that time grew up.
Family communities was likeraising a child and I grew up in
a big household six kids withmy mom and dad, and then I had
(06:00):
cousins, and our house wasalways where neighbors and
everyone always came to.
It was just always so much funand what that meant also was, if
you're going to be this smalllittle child in the middle of
all this chaos, like just veryquickly adapting to be sharp and
street smart and great for yourvoice to be heard, I think was
just so important.
But it was fun.
(06:20):
It was always nice looking upto these older people.
I think it's the privilege ofjust having much older siblings.
You can always just lookforward, look up to and aspire
to and be like, oh my god, whatthey're doing.
They're so cool.
But I think that was me.
That was my childhood.
It was just always happygatherings and community and
that was very important to usand that's always been a core
(06:40):
value for me so you go off touniversity really young and you
pick nutrition.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
So do you study that the whole three years of
university?
Speaker 2 (06:50):
I did.
I did, I think, look to behonest.
And you know, nutrition was not.
I wouldn't actually say it wasinitially in the cards for me
growing up.
Funny enough, I always justwanted to be weirdly enough.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
I know a lot of people are like growing up.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
I wanted to be a doctor and a lawyer and if I
tell you what I wanted to be sohilarious.
But what did you always wantedto be a supermodel for some
reason.
I just felt like I was likethis tall, lanky girl, extremely
lanky, very.
I'm 5'10.
So growing up I was like I wasvery tall.
(07:28):
I was always the tallest andeverything, and at the time I
thought that's all you needed.
You're tall and you can catwalk.
That was what you had to do tobe a supermodel at the time,
obviously, as this child.
So what I always wanted to bewas a supermodel and I thought
one day I was going to own myown modeling agency.
I was like always in my head.
I would remember going out, orthere was a time I was on a
(07:50):
plane, I think going for summer,and one of the elders reached
out and said oh my gosh, yourdaughter models.
I always used to get this kindof comment.
I just felt, yes, that's what Iwanted to be, and even when, on
the streets of London, I'llhave scouts reach out to me.
But then obviously I hadNigerian parents, so you can do
(08:11):
all that, but first let's finishwith university.
And obviously there was nocourts around, there wasn't
modeling courts or anything, andso I think for me at the time
my mom was also a nutritionist Iwas really thinking about what
did?
I was looking at everything.
I was like what am I reallygood at?
What do I enjoy?
I really loved, like chemistry,biology, but I was definitely
(08:32):
not going into the doctor.
Pharmacy pharmacy was actuallya second option for me if I
hadn't gone with nutrition, butI really didn't want to go into
that space, and so nutrition wasvery I became very fascinated
about it as I was speaking to mymom and just trying to
understand just the science ofthe body and how it plays a role
, and I really just started toget excited about the
(08:53):
possibility.
So I thought, okay, let's tryit.
And that's how I got intonutrition and I applied for it
and all the schools I appliedfor picked me and, yeah, I
started it.
It was a four year course oh,four, not three so it's three,
but you have to do like aplacement year.
After the second year you haveto do a whole placement year to
work somewhere and then fromthere come back to complete your
(09:14):
fourth, your third year on yourfourth year course yeah so that
was how I jumped into nutritionand it's really helped me to be
honest in where I find myselftoday.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
Do you go on to do your MBA right after, or do you
work before you do your MBA?
Speaker 2 (09:29):
I actually took a long break before I went into
MBA.
I was definitely one of thoseones that felt like I was after
four years.
I was just tired of school.
Yeah, I want to jump into thereal world right now and get
into corporate.
So MBA was something that cameafter I had gotten and I felt
was the right time, to be honest, because it made my MBA
experience so insightful andjust a lot more engaging because
(09:53):
I was coming in with a lot ofon the, I guess, on the job
experience or on experience.
So that was really good tobring that into my MBA.
But it's different fordifferent people, but I think
for me it worked out really wellhaving experience before going
into the MBA.
But again, like I say to people, like being an entrepreneur,
actually I don't even think youneed an MBA because what you're
(10:13):
doing right now is real life.
Right, new life MBA, you'relearning on the job, but anyway,
yeah.
So I did go into corporateworld.
I started my career with Nestlein the UK, where I worked there
for a while.
So obviously, with my nutrition, I then got really excited
about FMCG a lot of thismultinationals that had a big
(10:34):
nutrition space within theirrole in their company.
So Nestle obviously very big onnutrition kids nutrition so I
started my career there andafter a few years I caught this
wave of just wanting to moveback home and move back to the
continent.
So I moved back to Nigeria in2009, I believe and I moved back
to Nigeria and continuedworking with Nestle in Nigeria,
(10:57):
still within nutrition, and Ithink at the time is when I then
got really exposed to howinteresting FMCG industry is
Everything from the sales pieceto the marketing to brand
building and storytelling and itwas just such a beautiful
experience that I felt Idefinitely wanted to try that
(11:20):
and move away from that corenutrition into more of the
operational growth strategypiece.
And so, yeah, my career isdefinitely has not been a
straight line.
I think I have definitelydabbled into everything from
core science and nutrition tomore social science and just
understanding consumer behaviorsand how that links and
(11:40):
interacts with product and brandbuilding, and just telling a
story has been quite interestingfor me.
And so when I moved back toNestle, I was working in Nigeria
and at the time I had to do myyouth service and I was doing
that together with my time inNestle Nigeria.
And once I was done with that,I said, okay, I'm getting really
(12:01):
excited.
I do want to learn a bit morearound this business side of the
business of a company and allof that.
So I applied for a short courseat Harvard.
So this was like in 2010.
I went up to Massachusetts, Idid a short course in
international businessmanagement and all of that, and
while I was done, there is whenI then got a role with Unilever.
(12:25):
So I moved back, went back intoNigeria and started with
Unilever and I think that'sreally when this whole piece
just it just clicked, just gotreally excited about what I was
doing at Unilever.
I was with Unilever for abouteight plus years, so started off
in Nigeria with sales and thenmoved to Kenya as well with uni
(12:46):
Very funny story.
So I had actually just gottenmarried.
Two weeks into my marriage, myhusband got a job in Kenya.
We were like, okay, what is theplan here?
And so I was like I was thisjust very.
I don't know if I was naive nowthat I think about it, because
I was like I was this just very.
I don't know if I was naive nowthat I think about it, because
I was like I'm just going toquit my job and move with my
husband, like why, who does that?
(13:08):
I'm just going to quit and move.
And thankfully, what is soexciting is when you have
mentors in your corner who havebeen there and can really just
advise you.
So I remember sending in mynotice my resignation and my
director at the time.
He just sent me a message whatis this?
Withdraw your resignation,there's no way, and I had a chat
(13:31):
with him.
And there's a world where wecan get you to Kenya With
Unilever.
Why would you just resign.
I'm so grateful for that Everyday.
I don't know where he is he'sprobably somewhere retired in
Ghana but every time I thinkabout him it's got quick where
I'm just like my God.
He really changed things for mebecause I think my life would
have probably taken a differentturn.
I don't know, but it would havebeen different.
And so I withdrew myresignation and within a few, a
(13:54):
month or so, I had been able todo a transfer to Unilever Kenya,
and so that was the, withoutgoing too deep into it.
That was how my first role andhow I got into this FMCG space,
which has just been incrediblebuilding global, local brands
and having that opportunity totruly scale.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
That's such an interesting story.
So what was your role like withUnilever in Kenya?
Speaker 2 (14:17):
So in Kenya I worked closely so I did everything from
like sales to brand building tomarketing across East Africa.
So it was again managing brandsacross Kenya and Uganda,
tanzania, rwanda and all thesemarkets.
It was such an interestingexperience and I always say, if
(14:37):
you're someone who wants to be astrong marketer, oh my God,
start at Unilever, because theyhave the best foundation and
training.
Obviously it's a great trainingground to build strong
marketers.
And that really opened my eyesand when you own a brand, you
truly own it at a place likeUnilever because you understand
everything from productdevelopment to supply chain to
(14:58):
sales.
The P&L for the brand trulysits with you and you're truly
growing and taking ownership ofthat brand and driving scale and
growth.
So that was truly like a greatexperience for me to then launch
me into sort of the world ofentrepreneurship.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
So at what point did you then start considering
moving into the world ofentrepreneurship?
Speaker 2 (15:19):
To be honest, I think I've always been someone who's
felt like wanting to be able tobuild my own thing and have my
own thing, and I think for methat was because of the
household I grew up in.
I have both my parents areentrepreneurs.
My dad started his company over40 years ago, so I grew up at a
point where he was at the earlystages of building his company.
(15:40):
My mom is someone I always liketo refer to as a serial
entrepreneur.
I don't know how she did it.
Like every time I tell herkudos to you because you're
raising six kids obviously notraising it by yourself, but
still you've got six kids butthen you're like she started off
with a restaurant and then shehad like a salon, she had a
boutique and a lot of this, andI'm sure most of our moms
probably did that as well.
(16:00):
So I didn't really grow up in ahome of a corporate nine to five
parents who were very muchentrepreneurs, who worked on
their own time, and I think whenI was younger that's what I
loved.
It was the fact that these guyswere very flexible.
It was a lot of work.
My dad traveled a lot.
It was a lot of work, but youcan still see that a lot of
things were very flexible andthey could do things on their
own.
(16:20):
So I knew at some point thatentrepreneurship was in the
cards.
I was excited about it, evenwhen I had studied nutrition and
moved away from it at somepoint.
I still came back to trying tostart my own nutrition company
at a small scale, because I wasjust like I had to be doing my
own thing and building something.
And how do I empower with whatI think was important for me?
(16:41):
But anyways while I was atUniLive I started getting really
excited about just thepossibilities and I wanted to
build more in my business acumenand that's where my MBA
conversation came in.
So I did my MBA at ImperialCollege in London and while I
was there, I think that's.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
Did you take time off ?
You took time off to do thatfull time.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
So, executive, I was doing it with work.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
Okay, executive, you took time off to do that
full-time.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
So, executive, I was doing it with work.
Okay, executive it was a lot.
It was a bit of back and forthtravel, but also with I was
still working full-time.
At that time I just had, Ithink, my first baby as well, my
first child, so it was actuallyjust hanging quite a lot.
But I was really excited aboutthe mba experience because while
I was there is when I was trulyexposed to the world of just
the startup ecosystem.
(17:24):
It was huge and it was big and,yes, I had all this corporate
race strategy and ops backgroundin marketing and sales, but,
like, just in that coreentrepreneurship ecosystem just
blew my mind and I knew that,okay, this was exciting and I
definitely wanted to be a partof this.
And so, after Unilever, Ijoined Jumia.
(17:45):
At the time, jumia was likethis new Amazon for Africa.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
Out of Kenya.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
Out of Kenya yes, out of Kenya and he was like the
leading brand within Jumia andstill with there.
I think it was just again.
It was that fascination around.
It was this cool, really cooltech startup e-com startup
within that space.
And then, from Jumia, I joinedanother VC female-focused
startup called Kasha, againstill in Kenya, and I think,
(18:11):
with all that, I think what thatreally gave me was working at
startups and truly being thereand being core in senior
leadership roles.
I think this really exposed me,to be honest, in this world of
just having a startup and beingan entrepreneur If I think about
my dad and you're raising fundsor using your funds or you're
going to the bank or whateverthat is but then there's this
(18:32):
other world of this venturecapital.
That was so near to me, but itwas exciting and I was like gosh
, yes, I definitely want to be apart of that.
To be able to build and havepeople truly back you building
something believing.
What you're building and you'regoing out and you're truly
disrupting.
I think was something that wasvery exciting for me, yeah, and
(18:53):
so while I was at Kesha, theopportunity for Uncover, to be
honest, came up and I thoughtthis was going to be amazing.
At the time I was doing Kesha,I had my own side you always
have like your side gig with mynutrition that I was doing, but
I knew that at the time.
If I think about thisopportunity with Uncover versus
what I was doing with nutrition,I thought that was a world that
(19:14):
they could both merge.
When I think about holisticwellness for women and yeah and
they say the rest is history.
But that's how Uncover started.
With my co-founders I've gotSneha when she talked to me
about the idea of Uncover andfor me it just truly blew my
mind.
I was so excited about thepossibilities, something that
(19:35):
started as a PowerPointpresentation and then looking at
where Uncover is now, I thinkit's just been an intense and
amazing journey as we started tobuild the brand in the market.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
So were you guys part of an incubator or an
accelerator of some sort?
Did I read that?
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (19:51):
so Uncover was incubated by Antla.
So Antla is a global VCaccelerator and, again,
different.
If you feel like you're anentrepreneur, you want to build
something and you have an idea,you apply for the program, you
get into it and while you're inthe program you meet different
founders.
A lot of people come togetheras co-founders there.
When you go into that program,meet a co-founder, you come up
(20:12):
with an idea and truly build outwhat this idea is, and so at
the end of the cohort of theround, you get to present your
idea to what they call the IC.
So you're presenting it to theinvestment committee.
And what was really excitingwith Uncover was that, within
that cohort, uncover was likethe only brand that came out of
that with unconditional funding.
(20:33):
So we got our very firstfunding from and that was really
exciting for us, knowing thatlook, this was a PowerPoint
presentation, but these guystruly understood.
They understood the power andthe market size of the
opportunity and the problem thatwe wanted to solve uncover and
that's how we started.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
So let me take you back a little.
So I just want to drill down abit, just a little bit Jedi,
before we move on.
So what made you decide to gointo this incubator program?
First question and what idea?
Of course you, I think you wentin as an individual, I'm
assuming with your own idea, andthen you met your co-founders
(21:10):
there.
So what made you go in thefirst place, and what idea did
you have when you were going in?
Speaker 2 (21:16):
That's a very good question.
So with with Angela.
So at the time I was, I didn'tgo into the program.
So my co-founder Sneha, asecond co-founder, so we're
actually three co-founders Ithink.
If you've done, maybe, you'vepublished a book.
So we started off as threeco-founders and we're now two,
just because the thirdco-founder for good reasons,
(21:37):
decided to leave the business topursue other things, but then
so I didn't go into the Antlaprogram.
At the time I was with Kasia andsomeone from the ANTLA program
reached out to me while I was atKasia and said, look, someone
within this space has come upwith an idea that sounds
interesting and I think might besomething you want to look into
.
So I got into my first sessionwith Sneha and Catherine and
started talking about this ideaof Uncover and how, again, we're
(22:01):
building something for women inafrica was making.
Everyone had a core experienceand what they've experienced in
the market is how do we buildsomething for women of color and
starting with the continentswhere we are all living?
It's all just super exciting.
So I think for me, that's thenwhere I got super excited and to
now start building this brandtogether.
(22:21):
I think it's so much betterhaving co-founders to work with
than building a business alone.
It can be quite lonely and it'salways great to have a
co-founder to work with as well.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
Yeah, it's interesting because I've had,
we've, I've had.
It's a mixed bag.
I've had, I had one guest whowe spent time talking about
co-founder breakup and what itfeels like.
And then, of course, there arepeople who have successfully
navigated and building greatbrands with co-founders who've
come to become family.
What has your experience beenLike?
(22:53):
Of course, you didn't know yourco-founder before you started
and it's a bit of a gamble, butwhat has that experience been
like?
Speaker 2 (23:01):
It's a good question.
It really is a bit of a gamble,because you just never know,
especially if you're justmeeting this person, you're
learning your professionalbackgrounds and how you love to
work.
I always tell peopleco-foundership is like a
marriage.
It really is like right tomyself and sneha it really is.
it's a marriage, because you'respeaking to this person every
day, more than like hours in aday.
(23:23):
They're part of you.
You guys are just discussing,you have a shared vision and you
have to work together toachieve that vision.
So it's so important that youhave someone, that one you truly
trust, because trust is soimportant.
Just having complementingskills, I think that has really
helped us.
So Sneha comes from abackground that's very finance,
private equity focused, so she'ssomeone who loves numbers and
(23:46):
she crunches the numbers andbuilds financial models in her
sleep, right.
I've come from a backgroundthat's very operational brand
marketing strategy, and sobringing those skill sets
together I think verycomplimentary in the way we work
and how we trust each other.
This is your core.
I trust you to be able to focusand drive that growth, and this
(24:06):
is my core and she trusts me tobe able to focus and drive that
growth.
And we know that we have ashared vision and we do that
together, knowing that we'reboth building something very
meaningful.
That's core to our hearts.
Because outside of justbuilding on cover for us, I
think where we really gelled inour vision is truly about
empowering women.
That's the foundation.
I think we're both in thatspace where we truly just want
(24:28):
to be able to empower women,whether it's in their confidence
and leadership position.
So, for example, at Uncover,our entire leadership team are
women.
They're by women for women, andthat's just so.
It's important for us to beable to do that.
So having a co-founder that youcan do that with and you have
the same vision, I think it'scrucial.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
So tell us a bit more about Uncover Skincare.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
Yeah.
So Uncover is I like to say.
We're not just the.
We're really not just askincare brand Skincare in terms
of product, but we're trulybigger than skincare.
We are a movement to prioritizemelanated skin.
I think at the core of it isjust knowing that there are a
lot of us that exist, a lot ofwomen existing, different shades
and tones, and black, brown,every shade in between, but a
(25:12):
lot of times our voices aresidelined and so for.
Uncovered very important that weare putting melanated skin
women at the center ofeverything we do.
And so taking all that andobviously, yes, there's one part
of it where we're putting thatinto skincare products that we
develop and so a lot of what wedo that we love to term as
African beauty infusing thehealing powers of African
(25:36):
botanicals that we know haveworked for generations on our
continent everything from aloevera to baobab, to rooibos,
kombucha like how we're takingthose African botanicals
infusing them with Korean beautytechnology.
So K-beauty, I like to call itlike the Paris of skincare.
They're miles ahead when itcomes to skincare technology,
(25:56):
and so we're really bringing thebest of both worlds to make
sure we're giving African womenthe best possible care, and I
think that care truly comes inthe second piece of what we're
doing, which is truly aboutempowering and helping women to
uncover uncover their confidence, uncover whoever they want to
be.
So a lot of that comes out inour core messaging and comment
(26:17):
right, which is aboutaffirmations.
Again, when I talk about mynutrition background, I'm really
looking at Uncover as aholistic solution to wellness.
It's not just about topicalskincare products we talk
everything about.
What goes in is as important aswhat you put on your face.
We talk about health and howthat impacts your self-worth and
self-esteem, and so you'll findthat on all Uncover packages we
(26:39):
have affirmation statements andthose are very powerful and
they mean so much to us becauseaffirmations truly, when you're
interacting with an Uncoverproduct, you're saying I am
beautiful and I am radiant, I amprotected.
It's a great way to start orend your day from your
positivity.
So truly helping your mentalhealth is also quite important.
But outside of that, I thinkwhat's core is the scale, what
(27:01):
we've been able to achieve insuch a short space of time.
We started Uncover in 2020,right in the middle of the
pandemic.
We have been able to scale fromhaving one product in Kenya
having 14 SKUs in Nigeria, ghana, uganda, and we're truly
building a Pan-African brand.
Putting African women at thecenter of what we're building I
(27:23):
think has been instrumental tous.
And, of course, as we do all ofthat with skincare and the
content and the messaging, it'sthen truly knowing that to drive
scale we're building atech-enabled business.
So everything from oure-commerce to skin quiz and
teleconsultations that you cango on the website and book a
tele consultation with an expert, it's truly allowing us to then
(27:46):
be able to drive that skill andand be that direct consumer
business, even as we still servea sort of b2b retail
go-to-market strategy as wellyeah, that's very interesting.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
you've you answered a lot of the questions that were
running around in my head.
I wanted to know how manyproducts you had out in the
market and what markets thatyou're in, so you've told us a
bit about that.
Thank you for that.
In terms of how people get ahold of your products, I know
you are building a tech-enabledbusiness, but in some of these
markets people don't have accessto shopping online.
(28:19):
So how are you scaling in termsof products on the ground?
Speaker 2 (28:23):
our real-to-market is twofold.
So, yes, there's the focus ondirect-to-consumer, through
e-commerce and social commerceand all of that, but we also
have our b2b offline, becausewe're still, to be honest,
heavily a b2b market, an offlinemarket, offline market.
Right, the concept is very likeyou say, not everybody wants to
(28:44):
shop online or trust shoppingonline.
So you still want to be able towalk into a store to feel, to
experience, to trust that thisis a real product, because we
also have issues of there's alot of issues around just gray
products and counterfeits in themarket.
So people just want to makesure that I know where I bought
this product from and I knowwhere they are.
So we're still, heavily, themajority of our business still
(29:06):
sits within the B2B space.
So in Nigeria, for example, weare in over 100 MedPlus stores,
healthplus, casabella and a lotof all this Beauty Hearts, which
are still like e-retailers but,a variety of online beauty,
pharmacy and offline stores inNigeria.
I believe we are in those storesand similar to Kenya as well.
(29:28):
So, again, because pharmacychains in Kenya are called good
life and most of like the beautystores, linkedin, super
cosmetics, true cosmetics andall of those you'll find on
cover products there, which isright.
So we have an amazing teamthat's truly pushing and driving
distribution.
It's definitely a big part ofyou know what we're doing to
grow our footprints and trulymake sure that in every corner,
(29:50):
women have access to good,affordable skincare.
I think is quite important.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
In terms of these markets that you've been.
What has been your experiencein market entry?
Let's say, nigeria compared toKenya um, that has been.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
The markets are quite similar but, at the same time,
different, right?
So one thing we always like tosay is which is?
I guess what we're pioneeringis truly being that pan-Africa
brand and how do we take thismarket across?
There are other skincare brandsthat are also doing something
similar, but how do we take thisbrand across?
And I remember when we firstlaunched in Kenya, we're going
to launch in Nigeria.
(30:24):
We're like, oh God, do we needto create a new Instagram page?
A lot of our community andinfluencers and content creators
that we're working with it'spowerful in having one page
because truly, we need to tellour African story and we're the
same women, even though quitedifferent In any way.
So when I think about what'sbeen different, I think for
(30:45):
Nigeria, a lot of that is reallyabout building trust and
awareness first, I think, thatwas very important for the
Nigerian market.
So again, that offline trustbuilding awareness I think was
quite important.
Kenya.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
I think customers in.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
Kenya were a bit more digitally engaged from the very
beginning right.
We started on cover, and sothat's where we found a bit of
the differences.
And of course, you have thingslike just infrastructure,
infrastructure challenges rightacross both markets, which are
quite different in terms of justgetting good importation, even
just delivery logistics, hasbeen a little bit challenging,
but what's exciting is there'sso many other startups within
(31:25):
that system that's truly tryingto solve for some of these gaps.
Speaker 1 (31:29):
Another thing I found very interesting about your
business is the fact that you'vebeen able to raise an
incredible amount of money for atraditionally non-tech business
.
I don't know that I know anyother skincare business on the
continent that has been able toraise as much as I think.
From my research, you've raisedalmost $3 million so far for a
(31:50):
four-year-old business, andcongratulations on that.
Can you walk us through your?
Of course, your co-foundercomes from a PE background and
you've worked for a fundbackground and you'd worked for
a fund.
But what was your?
How did you approach the ideaof scaling?
Speaker 2 (32:07):
and fundraising for Uncover.
I will say at the beginning itwas quite challenging and it's
tough and it's always sad tohear that a lot of brands are
not able to also unlock.
I think for us at the beginningwe did face a lot of challenge
because I think a lot ofinvestors just couldn't place us
.
They just didn't understandthey're not FinTech.
Are they tech?
Like exactly what are they?
And at the time when we startedraising, it was like this
(32:28):
FinTech bubble.
Everybody just wanted to investin FinTech.
In fact, we had investors whowould come and they just didn't
get it and they would just belike are you FinTech?
No, I'm not interested, andthey would close the chapter.
And I think it was quitedifficult for people to just
understand that, okay, theseguys are, they're a consumer
goods company, they've gotphysical products, they have a
digital strategy, they have aD2C platform, but they're not
(32:50):
exactly.
They don't have software.
How are they going to scale?
What exactly?
So it was quite difficult and,I think, very quickly we had to
just understand.
It was important for us to showone how people understand the
market size of what we weretrying to do.
So, taking other markets thathave gone through the same
thinking about india or even theus exits and all of the people
(33:11):
are seen within the spacebecause, again, that needs to
make sense for for an investor.
But I think it was.
We initially found it.
Even, to some extent, westarted having conversations
like when we go to an investor,do we want to change our
strategy?
Do we position ourselves as atech company?
That's how bad it was, butobviously I'm happy that we
stayed true to our mission andto what we were building Because
(33:32):
, quite frankly, as soon aspeople saw that, listen, these
guys are building something herethat has clear path to
profitability.
We're seeing the rapid growthwe're seeing there's a clear
traction and so, as long as wecould show that what we found is
people who got it right, and wehad this conversation around
gender lens, funds funding andfemale fund because, again, we
(33:56):
are a majorly female focusedbrand it building for women and
so a lot of times when you'respeaking to funds that are
majorly run by men, they justdon't understand the gap we're
trying to solve for and thesolution we're trying to solve
for.
And so when we started speakingto a bit more of a
female-focused fund who couldrelate they could relate to
(34:17):
where we're solving for theyunderstood the opportunity and
the market size it startedbecoming a lot easier to have
those conversations, and so Iwould say probably maybe 40 or
half of our investors have comefrom funds that have that gender
lens views.
Quite a number of them again,everyone from Altree Capital,
true Adventures First CheckAfrica who are truly supporting
(34:40):
and backing female foundersBecause, ultimately, I think
female founders actually churnout better returns right, and I
think that's been very excitingfor us.
In fact, I was listening to apodcast the other day where it's
probably only five femalefounders have raised their
Series A in the whole of Africa.
Wow, I'm just saying across theindustry.
(35:03):
So there's a huge gap.
There's a big problem.
In the last five years, onlyless than 2% about 1.5% of funds
raised in Africa went to female.
It's a huge problem.
It's a huge gap.
So I think it's always aboutjust encouraging female founders
to step up to yeah, I think,just getting more funds that
truly believe.
And then how do you explain andpaint the right picture of your
(35:26):
brand?
Like people say, men have noproblem, even though they have
nothing.
They just have an idea.
They are so confident in howthey raise their funds and how
they talk about their business.
I think it's important that, aswomen, we're shouting about
what we're doing and trulybuilding and letting people see
that growth, the scale.
Don't be afraid to scale, tothink about scale, not just
(35:47):
thinking of.
If I'm doing this, I'm doingthis within this community or
just within Nigeria, but youtruly need to look at the wider
picture and scale, becauseinvestors want to.
Obviously they want a bigreturn for their budget, so how
do you make sure that you'reproviding that for them at scale
?
Speaker 1 (36:00):
I totally agree these are conversations that we
constantly keep having time fortheir body, so how do you make
sure that you're providing thatfor them at scale?
I totally agree.
These are conversations that weconstantly keep having.
It's one thing to be talkingabout how there's no female-led
unicorn on the continent, butit's even worse than that.
You're saying that less thanfive female-led companies have
raised Series A.
That's incredible.
Hats off to the people, to thefunds that are supporting on the
(36:22):
seed round level.
Speaker 2 (36:23):
But there's so much more we need to do I'm sorry,
just to correct that and talkabout the five female, not in
africa but in nigeria.
Speaker 1 (36:31):
Sorry if I mentioned in nigeria it's still a very
small number, it's still a verysmall number.
Yeah, it's still a very smallnumber and there's so much more
we can do.
Yeah, um, can you speak more tothe communication piece?
But because there's work on thefunder's side, but I too feel
like there's work on the femalefounder side.
(36:52):
Yeah, in terms of how weposition our story, you have a
storytelling background no,absolutely.
Speaker 2 (36:58):
I think what's important is again, in terms of
painting the picture of what isthe solution you're trying to
solve for and how big can it be?
So, truly thinking about themarket size, I know you're
thinking about the market sizefrom, so, for example, looking
at it from Nigeria, but ifyou're truly building a, if
you're building a product, youwant to build a product that can
scale rapidly and not justlooking at one market.
(37:20):
But how can I?
yes, I'm going to start and tryto understand and achieve my
product market fit in my firstlaunch market.
But as soon as you understandthat product market fit, or you
get the right product market fit, how do you then very quickly
scale right and how do you scaleto more markets or more people
using your product?
What does this look like?
I think investors definitelywant to be able to understand
that.
You want to be able tounderstand that.
(37:46):
You want to be able to showwhat your clear path to
profitability is because, again,people want to make sure that
you can build a sustainablebusiness.
You're not always going outraising funds, but you can build
a sustainable business.
So what is your clear path toprofitability?
And then just understanding yourbusiness fundamentals.
Speaker 1 (37:57):
Again, what are your?
Speaker 2 (37:58):
business fundamentals .
How are you looking at cashburn in your company?
Are you keeping it to to theminimum?
Are you tracking like?
What are the key metrics thatyou're tracking in your
organization, everything frombus margin to the revenue to
return on investments and everymarketing spend?
people just feel I don't reallyunderstand your industry.
I can't relate, so you need tohelp them understand and truly
(38:20):
paint that picture.
So, as a brand or as a founder,how are you making sure that
you truly understand the keymetrics that are important to
drive scale in your business?
Speaker 1 (38:27):
Every time I always say I don't cover like we track.
Speaker 2 (38:30):
We are tracking everything from how much we
spend on a paid ad to a UGCcreator or a shelf strip in the
store.
What is the return Each andeverything you're spending is
bringing back to the company,and I think investors want to
see that level of understanding.
I think it's more than justdoing a pitch deck and saying
this is the solution and this isthe problem and this is the
(38:51):
solution.
I think going in a bit more indepth of truly helping them
understand and giving them thatskill, that vision that you're
building so they can buy intothat, but also the business
fundamentals, I think it'scrucial.
Speaker 1 (39:03):
That's fantastic.
Thank you so much for that.
So, jetty, what does growthlook like for Uncover, going
forward?
Speaker 2 (39:17):
We always say at Uncover we are proudly African
but powerfully global, right, sowe're very proud about being an
African-grown brand, but wetruly see ourselves as a global
business because, like I alwayssay, especially with skincare,
you find a lot of these westernproducts in them in our markets,
right.
The amazing ads with thebuilding of this brands that
have been built around westernwomen in their markets, right.
(39:38):
And then Africa seems more oflike a regional expansion play
and it's okay, like, okay, let'sget to Africa.
And then we see all thesebrands that truly don't have us
in mind.
And so for us, we are doing theopposite, where we're truly
providing products that's testedand approved by women in Africa
, and so how do we now takeproducts that have been approved
by women in Africa and makethose products global?
I think for us, that's core.
(39:58):
So, if I think about the nextstage, we're actually launching
in more markets.
So it's really about how we'retaking this global going into
more markets.
I think what has been excitingfor us is again taking a bit
more of a global stand and aglobal stage to entering more
markets and truly taking Africanskincare global.
That's what's truly excitingfor us and as much as, yes,
we're growing our portfolio interms of product expansion and
(40:22):
we're very data-driven in theway we release products.
So, again, it's not just aboutgoing to get products from korea
and we're very data-driven.
We're listening to ourcommunity and saying, okay, what
are products that women need?
We have a data of over 30 000women that have taken that at
data points that we're able tolook at.
What are key concerns that womenin Africa face?
We know that the top three arehyperpigmentation, acne and dry
(40:45):
skin.
When we think about our productdevelopment, how is it
addressing those out of data andso all that, to come up with
strong formulas that are thenproduced in Korea.
We bring them to Kenya andNigeria, we test it on women
here before we then produce askill.
So I think for us anyway, goingback to your question it's
really taking that Africanbeauty and focus on African
(41:06):
women and taking that global,and so we're really excited in
the next couple of weekslaunching the US market.
This is still a bit hard.
We're really excited about thatand the opportunities that will
come out of that, I think hasbeen huge for us.
Speaker 1 (41:22):
That's exciting.
That's exciting.
And is there any particularreason why the Korea?
I mean, we all know aboutK-beauty why the Korea
connection?
Speaker 2 (41:31):
That's a really good point.
So again, look, I think, whenwe look at the markets around,
manufacturing Korea came outstrongly as people who, with
their technology, they use verygentle, very gentle ingredients.
So again, we don't want harsh,harsh ingredients, harsh
squabbing.
I think it was very importantthat we're working with high
quality manufacturers who alsoare very innovative.
(41:55):
So Korea is very innovativewhen it comes to skincare and
they're also just known forefficacy.
And so how do we take all ofthat and merge it with african
botanical?
And no one is really doing that, to be honest.
So we're truly pioneering that.
Imagine we've had people say whydon't you just make it on the
continent, like, why are you notmaking products?
And I think, look, while allthat is well and good, I would
(42:16):
like to say one.
I guess we're not amanufacturing company, so trying
to set up manufacturing ortrying to build in africa just
takes away from our focus.
We're still such a small brandthat we want to focus on what
we're good at, and what we'retruly good at is building a
brand, driving the message andtruly building that good quality
brand and making sure that wecan drive awareness and
penetrate our products in asmany homes as possible.
(42:38):
But then the manufacturingpiece is not our strength.
So we're going to be spending alot of our energy and time and
resources on trying tomanufacture products on the
continent, vis-a-vis justgetting the best of both worlds,
which is like global besttechnology.
But then if you use it in yourlocal botanicals to truly just
have the best product, maybe inthe future I don't know, it's
(43:07):
not a never situation, but it'slike when you're starting out as
a small brand, you truly wantto focus on certain areas and
work with experts and parts ofthe business.
Speaker 1 (43:10):
That is such a good point, Jenny, because I think
many businesses die on the altarof manufacturing, especially on
the continent.
I think a lot of them do.
So that is a really good pointto focus on what you're good at
and is really building thatbrand and meeting that need.
Thank you so much for sharingthat In terms of your pricing in
all these different markets,because I know, of course, I
(43:31):
want to ask you about logisticsand the challenge of moving
goods across the continent and Iknow that landing a good in
Lagos is nowhere the same priceas landing a good in Uganda.
A good in Lagos is nowhere thesame price as landing a good in
Uganda.
So what does your pricing looklike for this global brand that
you're building, you're tryingto put in markets across the
continent?
Speaker 2 (43:49):
When I think about the positioning from Cover.
We've always said we'rebuilding a mass-staged brand,
which is very important for us,and when I use the term
mass-staged just meaning that weare a brand that's aspirational
and affordable to the massmarket.
So we're not necessarilybuilding a mass brand, but we're
also not building a verypremium brand.
We're building a mass-searchedbrand that's very aspirational
(44:09):
and is very accessible to themass market, and I think for me
that has been.
I wouldn't lie supply chain isone of the things that keep me
up at night.
Speaker 1 (44:17):
It is tough.
Speaker 2 (44:18):
It is tough especially when we started with
making our products in korea andjust shipping from korea to
kenya.
And as obviously with moremarkets that you expand to, the
deeper the complexities thatcome with it.
So now we have to ship fromkorea to nigeria, korea to kenya
to uganda, and as you go intomore markets, so it is a bit of
a pain.
we've had logistical nightmaresat the beginning, like I said to
(44:40):
my team, we are going to out ofstock issues.
I'll be like oh my God, it wascute, because it was like oh my
God, our products are sellingout, so that's fantastic.
Speaker 1 (44:47):
But not anymore, because at this point you're
truly just losing money, andit's.
Speaker 2 (44:51):
how do we fix that?
From a logistical lack of tech,because, to be honest, we're
not necessarily enjoying anybenefits of shipping products
from Kenya to Nigeria.
Sometimes it feels a bitcheaper getting directly from
Korea into Nigeria, and so Ithink for us, look it's still.
I can't say that we've crackedit, but what we've tried to do
for sure is, as we think aboutour consumers in the different
(45:12):
markets we are not in the muchas my investors should not be
hearing this but, we're trulynot in the like maximized
profits, trying to raise ourprices just so we make the most
margins not at all.
We truly understand theconsumers that we are also
building for, and so we're trulybuilding, looking at how we're
driving a high quality productsat the best possible price.
(45:32):
A lot of that it might mean thatwe're taking hits on our
margins, but it's important.
There's no point putting aproduct out there that is super
expensive and nobody's pickingit off the shelves because, yeah
, you also know how the economyis at the moment.
Even in the two years or sothat we've launched in nigeria,
we've done only one priceincrease, as opposed to other
brands where it feels likealmost every month products is
price is changing.
(45:53):
I think for us that's importantbecause you know, we're trying
to absorb a lot of that as muchas we can, but at the other side
looking across the value chainand saying, okay, where can we,
where can pricing be impacted?
Everything is not just aboutthe end consumer, so it's
everywhere, from the supplier,right, how can we get better
pricing of the suppliers?
Can we look at what else are wedoing around, like packaging?
(46:14):
How can we minimize the cost?
Just looking at the full valuechain, and how do we minimize
that cost where it's not justpassing on costs to the supplier
?
But for my logistics andshipping and imports it's tough.
Like I always say, if there'sanything that I know, that
entrepreneurs who face this canspeak to a government, or when
people ask me, I've hadquestions like oh, if you were
(46:35):
to speak to a governmentofficial, what would you tell
them?
But part of you were to speakto a government official, what
would you tell them?
Part of it because in as muchas you are trying to support and
drive growth of peoplemanufacturing on the continent,
also knowing that these smallbrands are also still providing
employment and we're still doingother things to drive the
growth of the community, butjust to make it difficult, it is
(46:56):
every time you're shipping aproduct.
It's a nightmare, to be honest.
We're working through it.
Speaker 1 (47:01):
Thank you for what you do, and they say nothing
ventured, nothing gained.
Our hope is that supply chainissues will get better, because
that's the only way that ourbusinesses can grow.
And you're correct, you'recreating jobs, much needed jobs,
and it's something that shouldbe taken into consideration.
This has been a really greatconversation.
I could go on.
I have lots of questions, butwe have to wrap up, and so, in
(47:25):
wrapping up, I normally ask myguests two questions.
One's a reflection and anotheris advice.
So, in terms of reflecting inthis business that you've been
building over the last fouryears, what would you say are
one or two things that you aremost proud of, as you and your
co-founder have built thisbusiness over the last couple of
years?
Speaker 2 (47:45):
I would definitely say so.
Two things jumped to mind forme, and I think one is truly
building a brand that resonatesdeeply with women on the
continent.
That's truly empowered, becausewe're hearing the stories.
It's not just and I always sayit's not just about providing
quality skincare products orsolutions, but it's contributing
to shifting the narrative aboutbeauty and how beauty should be
(48:07):
inclusive, and I think that'sbeen incredibly powerful for me.
I think when we think about amarket in Africa, especially
Nigeria, where things likebleaching and hash scrubbing is
still a huge problem and a lotof that is coming because of the
power of what beauty?
What are the beauty standardsand what should beauty look like
, I think for us being able todisrupt and change the narrative
(48:29):
.
I was saying to someone theother day we had a launch of one
of our products recently wherewe truly built a story around
loving yourself unfiltered, andwe had a lunch and we had almost
200 people attend the lunch,from influencers to like our
consumers, and we told peoplethe dress code was come as your
authentic self and people camebare, faced, no makeup.
(48:51):
You don't see that happening.
I felt like we've truly beenable to achieve this drive, the
movement of just feelingempowered in yourself.
Right using makeup doesn't meananything, by the way, we're not
against that but, like I alwayssay, don't uncover healthy skin
, but the fact that we've beenable to drive a movement of just
being authentically yourself.
You don't have to change theway you look, you don't have to
(49:13):
like try to make yourself looklighter, because we've just
grown up with that mentality offair is more beautiful, but
that's core to the messaging andseeing that resonates with
women.
Oh my God, I think that hasjust been incredibly powerful
for me.
And I think the second thingwould be around fundraising.
There are two sides to thatcoin where it's a shame to feel
(49:34):
like you can count on yourfingers.
You know how many femalestartups have received funding
to a certain amount but the factthat we're able to change the
narrative, like I have peoplewho call me and say oh Jenny,
can you come and speak here?
You know you need to talk topeople about funding, because
Uncover within the beauty spaceis probably the only one that a
lot of people are hearing aboutUncover, I think, oh my God, how
(49:55):
are these guys within thebeauty space truly driving the
capital?
but how are these guys withinthe beauty space truly driving
your capital?
And I think that impact ofbeing able to drive that and
people see that it is possible,right, it is possible, and you
can empower other women andother startups to do the same.
I think that's truly somethingthat we don't take lightly and
want to obviously help andsupport and share as much as we
(50:17):
can.
Just make sure that in the nextfive years, the numbers should
be drastically different.
We should not be comparing 1.5or five women in Nigeria.
It should be a lot more thanthat.
Speaker 1 (50:28):
Yes, that is the goal .
That is the goal.
Thank you, jetty.
And so, in terms of advice, ifyou could give one piece of
advice to other women who arebuilding businesses across
Africa, what would that be?
Speaker 2 (50:46):
I'll definitely say be relentless and dream big.
I think let's be confident inthe solution and what we're
solving for and just truly dreamabout how can you scale.
I think be relentless aboutyour goal and your vision
because, to be honest, only you,only you can sell your story If
you truly know what you'rebuilding.
No one else can drive and sellit for you.
So be relentless, no matter howmany no's you get.
We've gotten so many no'strying to build this business
and raise funds for it, but youjust keep pushing.
(51:08):
It's not a oh, these guys don'tget it.
So maybe what I'm driving, I'mreally being ridiculous, but you
know, that you've got somethingpowerful, be relentless about
it and build that vision andstick to it and and I think, as
you build it, focus on trulybuilding a high quality,
sustainable business Right.
And I think if you have a highquality, sustainable business
that continues to offersolutions, that makes people's
(51:30):
lives better just stick at that.
No matter what it is thatyou're building, am I building
something quality, it'ssustainable, it's helping
people's lives?
I think stick at it and youwill find the right community
that you need to help you scalethat business.
Speaker 1 (51:46):
You will find it.
Thank you so much, daddy.
This has been a greatconversation, thank you.
Speaker 2 (51:51):
Amazing.
Thank you so much.
I really enjoyed theconversation.
Speaker 1 (51:54):
Thank you so much for listening.
If you're not alreadysubscribed, please do so on
Apple, spotify or wherever youget your podcasts, and don't
forget to leave us a review sowe know how we're doing.
I'm Akego Okoye and you havebeen listening to African
Business Stories.
Hi there and welcome to another episode of African
Business Stories.
Africa is the only region inthe world where more women than
men choose to be entrepreneurs.
What this says to me is thatthe story of business in Africa
is the story of the Africanbusinesswoman.
So we are on a journey ofdiscovery to find these women
(00:23):
and tell their stories.
On the show, we will hear fromfemale innovators and
entrepreneurs building andrunning businesses in Africa.
They will share the highs andlows of their entrepreneurial
journey and lessons learnedalong the way.
Some of these women you mayknow, and many you may not, but
(00:47):
I assure you that all theirstories are inspiring in their
own right.
My hope is that these storieswill inspire you to reach for
your dreams and leave a legacyfor generations to come.
It makes such a big differenceto us if you can rate, review
and share our episodes.
You can do this mainly on ApplePodcasts, and you can find us
on all podcast platforms Ifyou're in Africa.
(01:09):
Spotify is now available, socheck us out there and don't
forget to rate, review and share.
Today I chat with Jade Oyetoro,the co-founder and chief
operating officer at Uncover, atrailblazing skincare brand
redefining African beauty.
Oncover combines the richnessof African botanicals with
(01:34):
cutting-edge Korean beautytechnology, delivering products
that resonate with customersglobally.
Since its launch in 2020, thebrand has raised over $3 million
and recently launched into theUS market.
In this episode, Jade sharesher incredible journey from
building global local brands formultinationals to launching her
(01:57):
own brand.
Uncover Scaling a brand acrossAfrica, the dynamics of having a
co-founder, and practicaladvice on positioning for a
successful fundraise.
Whether you're an entrepreneur,a beauty enthusiast or simply
someone interested in stories ofinnovation and growth, this
(02:18):
episode is packed with insightsyou won't want to miss, so let's
get into it.
Hi Jade, Welcome to AfricanBusiness Stories.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Hi Akego, so excited to be here.
Thank you so much for invitingme to this podcast.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
Thank you.
I think you're my first guestin the beauty space, so this is
going to be a really interestingconversation.
So I know that you're Nigerianand I'm not wanting to assume
that everybody's born and raisedin Lagos, but just wondering
where you were born and raised.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Yeah, so yes, I'm Nigerian, born and raised in
Lagos, so that's a correctassumption.
I spent, I'll say, the first 15years of my life in Lagos, so I
am definitely a very proudNigerian and Lagosian if I can
say that.
I'm definitely a very proudNigerian and Lagosian if I can
say that Nigeria is always andwill always be home no matter
how.
I always say no matter where youfind yourself, you're true and
(03:11):
core and you're still here inNigeria at heart.
And no matter what we do, asthey always say, nigeria will
carry last.
Just carrying that mantra withme, no matter where I am in the
world or what I find myselfdoing.
For sure that's always been astrong one for me, yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
So where did you go at 15?
You said you were there until15 yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
So at 15 I moved to the UK.
So growing up like I was notwas I am the fifth of six
children growing up.
I've got I've got like fourolder siblings, and once you're
done with secondary school orhigh school, the next thing was
going off to do your a-levels oruniversity in the UK.
I think for me that was, butnow that I think back about it,
(03:52):
I did with someone with kids.
I'm like how many.
I have a child who's almost 10.
I don't know if I can ship thisguy off to somewhere by himself
in five years time, but anyway,that was me.
At 15 I went off to the UK.
Of course I had older siblingsthere, so I wasn't just by
myself to.
I did my first levels offoundation course and then went
(04:14):
off to University of Surrey whenI was about 17.
So actually I started quiteearly because, yeah, you should
be 18 to start you should be 18to start.
You should be 18 to start uni.
I actually started when I was17.
And I remember being told whichis weird, nobody has that but I
was given like a school mother,if that's what we would call it
one way in Nigeria.
So it was one of the professorshad to sign to be my guardian
(04:37):
as a 17.
Wow, coming to uni, which wasquite interesting, but yeah, so
that's where I guess I spent thenext 10 or so years of my life
in the UK, going through uni,and at the time it was very
interesting for me because whenI was applying for my what was
it called?
Acas or UCAS?
I can't remember UCAS, ucas yeahexactly, and I remember being
(04:59):
so stuck what am I applying for?
What do I want to go to uni?
What do I want to go to uni?
What do I want to study in uni?
And all of that.
I ended up doing nutrition.
But there's a whole storybehind behind that.
But anyway, back to yourquestion.
At 15 I was shipped off to theUK, very thankful and obviously
grateful for that experience aswell just for the benefit of our
(05:19):
guests who are like what in theworld is UCAS?
Speaker 1 (05:22):
So UCAS is like the admission process for getting
into university or college inEngland.
So just to explain that forpeople.
So is there any fond childhoodmemory you'd like to share,
whether from your time inNigeria or from your early days
in England?
Speaker 2 (05:39):
I think for me anytime I just try to remember,
I think it was just every time Ithink my happy place was just
always around community andfamily and I think most
Nigerians always at that, Ithink at that time grew up.
Family communities was likeraising a child and I grew up in
a big household six kids withmy mom and dad, and then I had
(06:00):
cousins, and our house wasalways where neighbors and
everyone always came to.
It was just always so much funand what that meant also was, if
you're going to be this smalllittle child in the middle of
all this chaos, like just veryquickly adapting to be sharp and
street smart and great for yourvoice to be heard, I think was
just so important.
But it was fun.
(06:20):
It was always nice looking upto these older people.
I think it's the privilege ofjust having much older siblings.
You can always just lookforward, look up to and aspire
to and be like, oh my god, whatthey're doing.
They're so cool.
But I think that was me.
That was my childhood.
It was just always happygatherings and community and
that was very important to usand that's always been a core
(06:40):
value for me so you go off touniversity really young and you
pick nutrition.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
So do you study that the whole three years of
university?
Speaker 2 (06:50):
I did.
I did, I think, look to behonest.
And you know, nutrition was not.
I wouldn't actually say it wasinitially in the cards for me
growing up.
Funny enough, I always justwanted to be weirdly enough.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
I know a lot of people are like growing up.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
I wanted to be a doctor and a lawyer and if I
tell you what I wanted to be sohilarious.
But what did you always wantedto be a supermodel for some
reason.
I just felt like I was likethis tall, lanky girl, extremely
lanky, very.
I'm 5'10.
So growing up I was like I wasvery tall.
(07:28):
I was always the tallest andeverything, and at the time I
thought that's all you needed.
You're tall and you can catwalk.
That was what you had to do tobe a supermodel at the time,
obviously, as this child.
So what I always wanted to bewas a supermodel and I thought
one day I was going to own myown modeling agency.
I was like always in my head.
I would remember going out, orthere was a time I was on a
(07:50):
plane, I think going for summer,and one of the elders reached
out and said oh my gosh, yourdaughter models.
I always used to get this kindof comment.
I just felt, yes, that's what Iwanted to be, and even when, on
the streets of London, I'llhave scouts reach out to me.
But then obviously I hadNigerian parents, so you can do
(08:11):
all that, but first let's finishwith university.
And obviously there was nocourts around, there wasn't
modeling courts or anything, andso I think for me at the time
my mom was also a nutritionist Iwas really thinking about what
did?
I was looking at everything.
I was like what am I reallygood at?
What do I enjoy?
I really loved, like chemistry,biology, but I was definitely
(08:32):
not going into the doctor.
Pharmacy pharmacy was actuallya second option for me if I
hadn't gone with nutrition, butI really didn't want to go into
that space, and so nutrition wasvery I became very fascinated
about it as I was speaking to mymom and just trying to
understand just the science ofthe body and how it plays a role
, and I really just started toget excited about the
(08:53):
possibility.
So I thought, okay, let's tryit.
And that's how I got intonutrition and I applied for it
and all the schools I appliedfor picked me and, yeah, I
started it.
It was a four year course oh,four, not three so it's three,
but you have to do like aplacement year.
After the second year you haveto do a whole placement year to
work somewhere and then fromthere come back to complete your
(09:14):
fourth, your third year on yourfourth year course yeah so that
was how I jumped into nutritionand it's really helped me to be
honest in where I find myselftoday.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
Do you go on to do your MBA right after, or do you
work before you do your MBA?
Speaker 2 (09:29):
I actually took a long break before I went into
MBA.
I was definitely one of thoseones that felt like I was after
four years.
I was just tired of school.
Yeah, I want to jump into thereal world right now and get
into corporate.
So MBA was something that cameafter I had gotten and I felt
was the right time, to be honest, because it made my MBA
experience so insightful andjust a lot more engaging because
(09:53):
I was coming in with a lot ofon the, I guess, on the job
experience or on experience.
So that was really good tobring that into my MBA.
But it's different fordifferent people, but I think
for me it worked out really wellhaving experience before going
into the MBA.
But again, like I say to people, like being an entrepreneur,
actually I don't even think youneed an MBA because what you're
(10:13):
doing right now is real life.
Right, new life MBA, you'relearning on the job, but anyway,
yeah.
So I did go into corporateworld.
I started my career with Nestlein the UK, where I worked there
for a while.
So obviously, with my nutrition, I then got really excited
about FMCG a lot of thismultinationals that had a big
(10:34):
nutrition space within theirrole in their company.
So Nestle obviously very big onnutrition kids nutrition so I
started my career there andafter a few years I caught this
wave of just wanting to moveback home and move back to the
continent.
So I moved back to Nigeria in2009, I believe and I moved back
to Nigeria and continuedworking with Nestle in Nigeria,
(10:57):
still within nutrition, and Ithink at the time is when I then
got really exposed to howinteresting FMCG industry is
Everything from the sales pieceto the marketing to brand
building and storytelling and itwas just such a beautiful
experience that I felt Idefinitely wanted to try that
(11:20):
and move away from that corenutrition into more of the
operational growth strategypiece.
And so, yeah, my career isdefinitely has not been a
straight line.
I think I have definitelydabbled into everything from
core science and nutrition tomore social science and just
understanding consumer behaviorsand how that links and
(11:40):
interacts with product and brandbuilding, and just telling a
story has been quite interestingfor me.
And so when I moved back toNestle, I was working in Nigeria
and at the time I had to do myyouth service and I was doing
that together with my time inNestle Nigeria.
And once I was done with that,I said, okay, I'm getting really
(12:01):
excited.
I do want to learn a bit morearound this business side of the
business of a company and allof that.
So I applied for a short courseat Harvard.
So this was like in 2010.
I went up to Massachusetts, Idid a short course in
international businessmanagement and all of that, and
while I was done, there is whenI then got a role with Unilever.
(12:25):
So I moved back, went back intoNigeria and started with
Unilever and I think that'sreally when this whole piece
just it just clicked, just gotreally excited about what I was
doing at Unilever.
I was with Unilever for abouteight plus years, so started off
in Nigeria with sales and thenmoved to Kenya as well with uni
(12:46):
Very funny story.
So I had actually just gottenmarried.
Two weeks into my marriage, myhusband got a job in Kenya.
We were like, okay, what is theplan here?
And so I was like I was thisjust very.
I don't know if I was naive nowthat I think about it, because
I was like I was this just very.
I don't know if I was naive nowthat I think about it, because
I was like I'm just going toquit my job and move with my
husband, like why, who does that?
(13:08):
I'm just going to quit and move.
And thankfully, what is soexciting is when you have
mentors in your corner who havebeen there and can really just
advise you.
So I remember sending in mynotice my resignation and my
director at the time.
He just sent me a message whatis this?
Withdraw your resignation,there's no way, and I had a chat
(13:31):
with him.
And there's a world where wecan get you to Kenya With
Unilever.
Why would you just resign.
I'm so grateful for that Everyday.
I don't know where he is he'sprobably somewhere retired in
Ghana but every time I thinkabout him it's got quick where
I'm just like my God.
He really changed things for mebecause I think my life would
have probably taken a differentturn.
I don't know, but it would havebeen different.
And so I withdrew myresignation and within a few, a
(13:54):
month or so, I had been able todo a transfer to Unilever Kenya,
and so that was the, withoutgoing too deep into it.
That was how my first role andhow I got into this FMCG space,
which has just been incrediblebuilding global, local brands
and having that opportunity totruly scale.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
That's such an interesting story.
So what was your role like withUnilever in Kenya?
Speaker 2 (14:17):
So in Kenya I worked closely so I did everything from
like sales to brand building tomarketing across East Africa.
So it was again managing brandsacross Kenya and Uganda,
tanzania, rwanda and all thesemarkets.
It was such an interestingexperience and I always say, if
(14:37):
you're someone who wants to be astrong marketer, oh my God,
start at Unilever, because theyhave the best foundation and
training.
Obviously it's a great trainingground to build strong
marketers.
And that really opened my eyesand when you own a brand, you
truly own it at a place likeUnilever because you understand
everything from productdevelopment to supply chain to
(14:58):
sales.
The P&L for the brand trulysits with you and you're truly
growing and taking ownership ofthat brand and driving scale and
growth.
So that was truly like a greatexperience for me to then launch
me into sort of the world ofentrepreneurship.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
So at what point did you then start considering
moving into the world ofentrepreneurship?
Speaker 2 (15:19):
To be honest, I think I've always been someone who's
felt like wanting to be able tobuild my own thing and have my
own thing, and I think for methat was because of the
household I grew up in.
I have both my parents areentrepreneurs.
My dad started his company over40 years ago, so I grew up at a
point where he was at the earlystages of building his company.
(15:40):
My mom is someone I always liketo refer to as a serial
entrepreneur.
I don't know how she did it.
Like every time I tell herkudos to you because you're
raising six kids obviously notraising it by yourself, but
still you've got six kids butthen you're like she started off
with a restaurant and then shehad like a salon, she had a
boutique and a lot of this, andI'm sure most of our moms
probably did that as well.
(16:00):
So I didn't really grow up in ahome of a corporate nine to five
parents who were very muchentrepreneurs, who worked on
their own time, and I think whenI was younger that's what I
loved.
It was the fact that these guyswere very flexible.
It was a lot of work.
My dad traveled a lot.
It was a lot of work, but youcan still see that a lot of
things were very flexible andthey could do things on their
own.
(16:20):
So I knew at some point thatentrepreneurship was in the
cards.
I was excited about it, evenwhen I had studied nutrition and
moved away from it at somepoint.
I still came back to trying tostart my own nutrition company
at a small scale, because I wasjust like I had to be doing my
own thing and building something.
And how do I empower with whatI think was important for me?
(16:41):
But anyways while I was atUniLive I started getting really
excited about just thepossibilities and I wanted to
build more in my business acumenand that's where my MBA
conversation came in.
So I did my MBA at ImperialCollege in London and while I
was there, I think that's.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
Did you take time off ?
You took time off to do thatfull time.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
So, executive, I was doing it with work.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
Okay, executive, you took time off to do that
full-time.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
So, executive, I was doing it with work.
Okay, executive it was a lot.
It was a bit of back and forthtravel, but also with I was
still working full-time.
At that time I just had, Ithink, my first baby as well, my
first child, so it was actuallyjust hanging quite a lot.
But I was really excited aboutthe mba experience because while
I was there is when I was trulyexposed to the world of just
the startup ecosystem.
(17:24):
It was huge and it was big and,yes, I had all this corporate
race strategy and ops backgroundin marketing and sales, but,
like, just in that coreentrepreneurship ecosystem just
blew my mind and I knew that,okay, this was exciting and I
definitely wanted to be a partof this.
And so, after Unilever, Ijoined Jumia.
(17:45):
At the time, jumia was likethis new Amazon for Africa.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
Out of Kenya.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
Out of Kenya yes, out of Kenya and he was like the
leading brand within Jumia andstill with there.
I think it was just again.
It was that fascination around.
It was this cool, really cooltech startup e-com startup
within that space.
And then, from Jumia, I joinedanother VC female-focused
startup called Kasha, againstill in Kenya, and I think,
(18:11):
with all that, I think what thatreally gave me was working at
startups and truly being thereand being core in senior
leadership roles.
I think this really exposed me,to be honest, in this world of
just having a startup and beingan entrepreneur If I think about
my dad and you're raising fundsor using your funds or you're
going to the bank or whateverthat is but then there's this
(18:32):
other world of this venturecapital.
That was so near to me, but itwas exciting and I was like gosh
, yes, I definitely want to be apart of that.
To be able to build and havepeople truly back you building
something believing.
What you're building and you'regoing out and you're truly
disrupting.
I think was something that wasvery exciting for me, yeah, and
(18:53):
so while I was at Kesha, theopportunity for Uncover, to be
honest, came up and I thoughtthis was going to be amazing.
At the time I was doing Kesha,I had my own side you always
have like your side gig with mynutrition that I was doing, but
I knew that at the time.
If I think about thisopportunity with Uncover versus
what I was doing with nutrition,I thought that was a world that
(19:14):
they could both merge.
When I think about holisticwellness for women and yeah and
they say the rest is history.
But that's how Uncover started.
With my co-founders I've gotSneha when she talked to me
about the idea of Uncover andfor me it just truly blew my
mind.
I was so excited about thepossibilities, something that
(19:35):
started as a PowerPointpresentation and then looking at
where Uncover is now, I thinkit's just been an intense and
amazing journey as we started tobuild the brand in the market.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
So were you guys part of an incubator or an
accelerator of some sort?
Did I read that?
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (19:51):
so Uncover was incubated by Antla.
So Antla is a global VCaccelerator and, again,
different.
If you feel like you're anentrepreneur, you want to build
something and you have an idea,you apply for the program, you
get into it and while you're inthe program you meet different
founders.
A lot of people come togetheras co-founders there.
When you go into that program,meet a co-founder, you come up
(20:12):
with an idea and truly build outwhat this idea is, and so at
the end of the cohort of theround, you get to present your
idea to what they call the IC.
So you're presenting it to theinvestment committee.
And what was really excitingwith Uncover was that, within
that cohort, uncover was likethe only brand that came out of
that with unconditional funding.
(20:33):
So we got our very firstfunding from and that was really
exciting for us, knowing thatlook, this was a PowerPoint
presentation, but these guystruly understood.
They understood the power andthe market size of the
opportunity and the problem thatwe wanted to solve uncover and
that's how we started.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
So let me take you back a little.
So I just want to drill down abit, just a little bit Jedi,
before we move on.
So what made you decide to gointo this incubator program?
First question and what idea?
Of course you, I think you wentin as an individual, I'm
assuming with your own idea, andthen you met your co-founders
(21:10):
there.
So what made you go in thefirst place, and what idea did
you have when you were going in?
Speaker 2 (21:16):
That's a very good question.
So with with Angela.
So at the time I was, I didn'tgo into the program.
So my co-founder Sneha, asecond co-founder, so we're
actually three co-founders Ithink.
If you've done, maybe, you'vepublished a book.
So we started off as threeco-founders and we're now two,
just because the thirdco-founder for good reasons,
(21:37):
decided to leave the business topursue other things, but then
so I didn't go into the Antlaprogram.
At the time I was with Kasia andsomeone from the ANTLA program
reached out to me while I was atKasia and said, look, someone
within this space has come upwith an idea that sounds
interesting and I think might besomething you want to look into
.
So I got into my first sessionwith Sneha and Catherine and
started talking about this ideaof Uncover and how, again, we're
(22:01):
building something for women inafrica was making.
Everyone had a core experienceand what they've experienced in
the market is how do we buildsomething for women of color and
starting with the continentswhere we are all living?
It's all just super exciting.
So I think for me, that's thenwhere I got super excited and to
now start building this brandtogether.
(22:21):
I think it's so much betterhaving co-founders to work with
than building a business alone.
It can be quite lonely and it'salways great to have a
co-founder to work with as well.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
Yeah, it's interesting because I've had,
we've, I've had.
It's a mixed bag.
I've had, I had one guest whowe spent time talking about
co-founder breakup and what itfeels like.
And then, of course, there arepeople who have successfully
navigated and building greatbrands with co-founders who've
come to become family.
What has your experience beenLike?
(22:53):
Of course, you didn't know yourco-founder before you started
and it's a bit of a gamble, butwhat has that experience been
like?
Speaker 2 (23:01):
It's a good question.
It really is a bit of a gamble,because you just never know,
especially if you're justmeeting this person, you're
learning your professionalbackgrounds and how you love to
work.
I always tell peopleco-foundership is like a
marriage.
It really is like right tomyself and sneha it really is.
it's a marriage, because you'respeaking to this person every
day, more than like hours in aday.
(23:23):
They're part of you.
You guys are just discussing,you have a shared vision and you
have to work together toachieve that vision.
So it's so important that youhave someone, that one you truly
trust, because trust is soimportant.
Just having complementingskills, I think that has really
helped us.
So Sneha comes from abackground that's very finance,
private equity focused, so she'ssomeone who loves numbers and
(23:46):
she crunches the numbers andbuilds financial models in her
sleep, right.
I've come from a backgroundthat's very operational brand
marketing strategy, and sobringing those skill sets
together I think verycomplimentary in the way we work
and how we trust each other.
This is your core.
I trust you to be able to focusand drive that growth, and this
(24:06):
is my core and she trusts me tobe able to focus and drive that
growth.
And we know that we have ashared vision and we do that
together, knowing that we'reboth building something very
meaningful.
That's core to our hearts.
Because outside of justbuilding on cover for us, I
think where we really gelled inour vision is truly about
empowering women.
That's the foundation.
I think we're both in thatspace where we truly just want
(24:28):
to be able to empower women,whether it's in their confidence
and leadership position.
So, for example, at Uncover,our entire leadership team are
women.
They're by women for women, andthat's just so.
It's important for us to beable to do that.
So having a co-founder that youcan do that with and you have
the same vision, I think it'scrucial.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
So tell us a bit more about Uncover Skincare.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
Yeah.
So Uncover is I like to say.
We're not just the.
We're really not just askincare brand Skincare in terms
of product, but we're trulybigger than skincare.
We are a movement to prioritizemelanated skin.
I think at the core of it isjust knowing that there are a
lot of us that exist, a lot ofwomen existing, different shades
and tones, and black, brown,every shade in between, but a
(25:12):
lot of times our voices aresidelined and so for.
Uncovered very important that weare putting melanated skin
women at the center ofeverything we do.
And so taking all that andobviously, yes, there's one part
of it where we're putting thatinto skincare products that we
develop and so a lot of what wedo that we love to term as
African beauty infusing thehealing powers of African
(25:36):
botanicals that we know haveworked for generations on our
continent everything from aloevera to baobab, to rooibos,
kombucha like how we're takingthose African botanicals
infusing them with Korean beautytechnology.
So K-beauty, I like to call itlike the Paris of skincare.
They're miles ahead when itcomes to skincare technology,
(25:56):
and so we're really bringing thebest of both worlds to make
sure we're giving African womenthe best possible care, and I
think that care truly comes inthe second piece of what we're
doing, which is truly aboutempowering and helping women to
uncover uncover their confidence, uncover whoever they want to
be.
So a lot of that comes out inour core messaging and comment
(26:17):
right, which is aboutaffirmations.
Again, when I talk about mynutrition background, I'm really
looking at Uncover as aholistic solution to wellness.
It's not just about topicalskincare products we talk
everything about.
What goes in is as important aswhat you put on your face.
We talk about health and howthat impacts your self-worth and
self-esteem, and so you'll findthat on all Uncover packages we
(26:39):
have affirmation statements andthose are very powerful and
they mean so much to us becauseaffirmations truly, when you're
interacting with an Uncoverproduct, you're saying I am
beautiful and I am radiant, I amprotected.
It's a great way to start orend your day from your
positivity.
So truly helping your mentalhealth is also quite important.
But outside of that, I thinkwhat's core is the scale, what
(27:01):
we've been able to achieve insuch a short space of time.
We started Uncover in 2020,right in the middle of the
pandemic.
We have been able to scale fromhaving one product in Kenya
having 14 SKUs in Nigeria, ghana, uganda, and we're truly
building a Pan-African brand.
Putting African women at thecenter of what we're building I
(27:23):
think has been instrumental tous.
And, of course, as we do all ofthat with skincare and the
content and the messaging, it'sthen truly knowing that to drive
scale we're building atech-enabled business.
So everything from oure-commerce to skin quiz and
teleconsultations that you cango on the website and book a
tele consultation with an expert, it's truly allowing us to then
(27:46):
be able to drive that skill andand be that direct consumer
business, even as we still servea sort of b2b retail
go-to-market strategy as wellyeah, that's very interesting.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
you've you answered a lot of the questions that were
running around in my head.
I wanted to know how manyproducts you had out in the
market and what markets thatyou're in, so you've told us a
bit about that.
Thank you for that.
In terms of how people get ahold of your products, I know
you are building a tech-enabledbusiness, but in some of these
markets people don't have accessto shopping online.
(28:19):
So how are you scaling in termsof products on the ground?
Speaker 2 (28:23):
our real-to-market is twofold.
So, yes, there's the focus ondirect-to-consumer, through
e-commerce and social commerceand all of that, but we also
have our b2b offline, becausewe're still, to be honest,
heavily a b2b market, an offlinemarket, offline market.
Right, the concept is very likeyou say, not everybody wants to
(28:44):
shop online or trust shoppingonline.
So you still want to be able towalk into a store to feel, to
experience, to trust that thisis a real product, because we
also have issues of there's alot of issues around just gray
products and counterfeits in themarket.
So people just want to makesure that I know where I bought
this product from and I knowwhere they are.
So we're still, heavily, themajority of our business still
(29:06):
sits within the B2B space.
So in Nigeria, for example, weare in over 100 MedPlus stores,
healthplus, casabella and a lotof all this Beauty Hearts, which
are still like e-retailers but,a variety of online beauty,
pharmacy and offline stores inNigeria.
I believe we are in those storesand similar to Kenya as well.
(29:28):
So, again, because pharmacychains in Kenya are called good
life and most of like the beautystores, linkedin, super
cosmetics, true cosmetics andall of those you'll find on
cover products there, which isright.
So we have an amazing teamthat's truly pushing and driving
distribution.
It's definitely a big part ofyou know what we're doing to
grow our footprints and trulymake sure that in every corner,
(29:50):
women have access to good,affordable skincare.
I think is quite important.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
In terms of these markets that you've been.
What has been your experiencein market entry?
Let's say, nigeria compared toKenya um, that has been.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
The markets are quite similar but, at the same time,
different, right?
So one thing we always like tosay is which is?
I guess what we're pioneeringis truly being that pan-Africa
brand and how do we take thismarket across?
There are other skincare brandsthat are also doing something
similar, but how do we take thisbrand across?
And I remember when we firstlaunched in Kenya, we're going
to launch in Nigeria.
(30:24):
We're like, oh God, do we needto create a new Instagram page?
A lot of our community andinfluencers and content creators
that we're working with it'spowerful in having one page
because truly, we need to tellour African story and we're the
same women, even though quitedifferent In any way.
So when I think about what'sbeen different, I think for
(30:45):
Nigeria, a lot of that is reallyabout building trust and
awareness first, I think, thatwas very important for the
Nigerian market.
So again, that offline trustbuilding awareness I think was
quite important.
Kenya.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
I think customers in.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
Kenya were a bit more digitally engaged from the very
beginning right.
We started on cover, and sothat's where we found a bit of
the differences.
And of course, you have thingslike just infrastructure,
infrastructure challenges rightacross both markets, which are
quite different in terms of justgetting good importation, even
just delivery logistics, hasbeen a little bit challenging,
but what's exciting is there'sso many other startups within
(31:25):
that system that's truly tryingto solve for some of these gaps.
Speaker 1 (31:29):
Another thing I found very interesting about your
business is the fact that you'vebeen able to raise an
incredible amount of money for atraditionally non-tech business
.
I don't know that I know anyother skincare business on the
continent that has been able toraise as much as I think.
From my research, you've raisedalmost $3 million so far for a
(31:50):
four-year-old business, andcongratulations on that.
Can you walk us through your?
Of course, your co-foundercomes from a PE background and
you've worked for a fundbackground and you'd worked for
a fund.
But what was your?
How did you approach the ideaof scaling?
Speaker 2 (32:07):
and fundraising for Uncover.
I will say at the beginning itwas quite challenging and it's
tough and it's always sad tohear that a lot of brands are
not able to also unlock.
I think for us at the beginningwe did face a lot of challenge
because I think a lot ofinvestors just couldn't place us
.
They just didn't understandthey're not FinTech.
Are they tech?
Like exactly what are they?
And at the time when we startedraising, it was like this
(32:28):
FinTech bubble.
Everybody just wanted to investin FinTech.
In fact, we had investors whowould come and they just didn't
get it and they would just belike are you FinTech?
No, I'm not interested, andthey would close the chapter.
And I think it was quitedifficult for people to just
understand that, okay, theseguys are, they're a consumer
goods company, they've gotphysical products, they have a
digital strategy, they have aD2C platform, but they're not
(32:50):
exactly.
They don't have software.
How are they going to scale?
What exactly?
So it was quite difficult and,I think, very quickly we had to
just understand.
It was important for us to showone how people understand the
market size of what we weretrying to do.
So, taking other markets thathave gone through the same
thinking about india or even theus exits and all of the people
(33:11):
are seen within the spacebecause, again, that needs to
make sense for for an investor.
But I think it was.
We initially found it.
Even, to some extent, westarted having conversations
like when we go to an investor,do we want to change our
strategy?
Do we position ourselves as atech company?
That's how bad it was, butobviously I'm happy that we
stayed true to our mission andto what we were building Because
(33:32):
, quite frankly, as soon aspeople saw that, listen, these
guys are building something herethat has clear path to
profitability.
We're seeing the rapid growthwe're seeing there's a clear
traction and so, as long as wecould show that what we found is
people who got it right, and wehad this conversation around
gender lens, funds funding andfemale fund because, again, we
(33:56):
are a majorly female focusedbrand it building for women and
so a lot of times when you'respeaking to funds that are
majorly run by men, they justdon't understand the gap we're
trying to solve for and thesolution we're trying to solve
for.
And so when we started speakingto a bit more of a
female-focused fund who couldrelate they could relate to
(34:17):
where we're solving for theyunderstood the opportunity and
the market size it startedbecoming a lot easier to have
those conversations, and so Iwould say probably maybe 40 or
half of our investors have comefrom funds that have that gender
lens views.
Quite a number of them again,everyone from Altree Capital,
true Adventures First CheckAfrica who are truly supporting
(34:40):
and backing female foundersBecause, ultimately, I think
female founders actually churnout better returns right, and I
think that's been very excitingfor us.
In fact, I was listening to apodcast the other day where it's
probably only five femalefounders have raised their
Series A in the whole of Africa.
Wow, I'm just saying across theindustry.
(35:03):
So there's a huge gap.
There's a big problem.
In the last five years, onlyless than 2% about 1.5% of funds
raised in Africa went to female.
It's a huge problem.
It's a huge gap.
So I think it's always aboutjust encouraging female founders
to step up to yeah, I think,just getting more funds that
truly believe.
And then how do you explain andpaint the right picture of your
(35:26):
brand?
Like people say, men have noproblem, even though they have
nothing.
They just have an idea.
They are so confident in howthey raise their funds and how
they talk about their business.
I think it's important that, aswomen, we're shouting about
what we're doing and trulybuilding and letting people see
that growth, the scale.
Don't be afraid to scale, tothink about scale, not just
(35:47):
thinking of.
If I'm doing this, I'm doingthis within this community or
just within Nigeria, but youtruly need to look at the wider
picture and scale, becauseinvestors want to.
Obviously they want a bigreturn for their budget, so how
do you make sure that you'reproviding that for them at scale
?
Speaker 1 (36:00):
I totally agree these are conversations that we
constantly keep having time fortheir body, so how do you make
sure that you're providing thatfor them at scale?
I totally agree.
These are conversations that weconstantly keep having.
It's one thing to be talkingabout how there's no female-led
unicorn on the continent, butit's even worse than that.
You're saying that less thanfive female-led companies have
raised Series A.
That's incredible.
Hats off to the people, to thefunds that are supporting on the
(36:22):
seed round level.
Speaker 2 (36:23):
But there's so much more we need to do I'm sorry,
just to correct that and talkabout the five female, not in
africa but in nigeria.
Speaker 1 (36:31):
Sorry if I mentioned in nigeria it's still a very
small number, it's still a verysmall number.
Yeah, it's still a very smallnumber and there's so much more
we can do.
Yeah, um, can you speak more tothe communication piece?
But because there's work on thefunder's side, but I too feel
like there's work on the femalefounder side.
(36:52):
Yeah, in terms of how weposition our story, you have a
storytelling background no,absolutely.
Speaker 2 (36:58):
I think what's important is again, in terms of
painting the picture of what isthe solution you're trying to
solve for and how big can it be?
So, truly thinking about themarket size, I know you're
thinking about the market sizefrom, so, for example, looking
at it from Nigeria, but ifyou're truly building a, if
you're building a product, youwant to build a product that can
scale rapidly and not justlooking at one market.
(37:20):
But how can I?
yes, I'm going to start and tryto understand and achieve my
product market fit in my firstlaunch market.
But as soon as you understandthat product market fit, or you
get the right product market fit, how do you then very quickly
scale right and how do you scaleto more markets or more people
using your product?
What does this look like?
I think investors definitelywant to be able to understand
that.
You want to be able tounderstand that.
(37:46):
You want to be able to showwhat your clear path to
profitability is because, again,people want to make sure that
you can build a sustainablebusiness.
You're not always going outraising funds, but you can build
a sustainable business.
So what is your clear path toprofitability?
And then just understanding yourbusiness fundamentals.
Speaker 1 (37:57):
Again, what are your?
Speaker 2 (37:58):
business fundamentals .
How are you looking at cashburn in your company?
Are you keeping it to to theminimum?
Are you tracking like?
What are the key metrics thatyou're tracking in your
organization, everything frombus margin to the revenue to
return on investments and everymarketing spend?
people just feel I don't reallyunderstand your industry.
I can't relate, so you need tohelp them understand and truly
(38:20):
paint that picture.
So, as a brand or as a founder,how are you making sure that
you truly understand the keymetrics that are important to
drive scale in your business?
Speaker 1 (38:27):
Every time I always say I don't cover like we track.
Speaker 2 (38:30):
We are tracking everything from how much we
spend on a paid ad to a UGCcreator or a shelf strip in the
store.
What is the return Each andeverything you're spending is
bringing back to the company,and I think investors want to
see that level of understanding.
I think it's more than justdoing a pitch deck and saying
this is the solution and this isthe problem and this is the
(38:51):
solution.
I think going in a bit more indepth of truly helping them
understand and giving them thatskill, that vision that you're
building so they can buy intothat, but also the business
fundamentals, I think it'scrucial.
Speaker 1 (39:03):
That's fantastic.
Thank you so much for that.
So, jetty, what does growthlook like for Uncover, going
forward?
Speaker 2 (39:17):
We always say at Uncover we are proudly African
but powerfully global, right, sowe're very proud about being an
African-grown brand, but wetruly see ourselves as a global
business because, like I alwayssay, especially with skincare,
you find a lot of these westernproducts in them in our markets,
right.
The amazing ads with thebuilding of this brands that
have been built around westernwomen in their markets, right.
(39:38):
And then Africa seems more oflike a regional expansion play
and it's okay, like, okay, let'sget to Africa.
And then we see all thesebrands that truly don't have us
in mind.
And so for us, we are doing theopposite, where we're truly
providing products that's testedand approved by women in Africa
, and so how do we now takeproducts that have been approved
by women in Africa and makethose products global?
I think for us, that's core.
(39:58):
So, if I think about the nextstage, we're actually launching
in more markets.
So it's really about how we'retaking this global going into
more markets.
I think what has been excitingfor us is again taking a bit
more of a global stand and aglobal stage to entering more
markets and truly taking Africanskincare global.
That's what's truly excitingfor us and as much as, yes,
we're growing our portfolio interms of product expansion and
(40:22):
we're very data-driven in theway we release products.
So, again, it's not just aboutgoing to get products from korea
and we're very data-driven.
We're listening to ourcommunity and saying, okay, what
are products that women need?
We have a data of over 30 000women that have taken that at
data points that we're able tolook at.
What are key concerns that womenin Africa face?
We know that the top three arehyperpigmentation, acne and dry
(40:45):
skin.
When we think about our productdevelopment, how is it
addressing those out of data andso all that, to come up with
strong formulas that are thenproduced in Korea.
We bring them to Kenya andNigeria, we test it on women
here before we then produce askill.
So I think for us anyway, goingback to your question it's
really taking that Africanbeauty and focus on African
(41:06):
women and taking that global,and so we're really excited in
the next couple of weekslaunching the US market.
This is still a bit hard.
We're really excited about thatand the opportunities that will
come out of that, I think hasbeen huge for us.
Speaker 1 (41:22):
That's exciting.
That's exciting.
And is there any particularreason why the Korea?
I mean, we all know aboutK-beauty why the Korea
connection?
Speaker 2 (41:31):
That's a really good point.
So again, look, I think, whenwe look at the markets around,
manufacturing Korea came outstrongly as people who, with
their technology, they use verygentle, very gentle ingredients.
So again, we don't want harsh,harsh ingredients, harsh
squabbing.
I think it was very importantthat we're working with high
quality manufacturers who alsoare very innovative.
(41:55):
So Korea is very innovativewhen it comes to skincare and
they're also just known forefficacy.
And so how do we take all ofthat and merge it with african
botanical?
And no one is really doing that, to be honest.
So we're truly pioneering that.
Imagine we've had people say whydon't you just make it on the
continent, like, why are you notmaking products?
And I think, look, while allthat is well and good, I would
(42:16):
like to say one.
I guess we're not amanufacturing company, so trying
to set up manufacturing ortrying to build in africa just
takes away from our focus.
We're still such a small brandthat we want to focus on what
we're good at, and what we'retruly good at is building a
brand, driving the message andtruly building that good quality
brand and making sure that wecan drive awareness and
penetrate our products in asmany homes as possible.
(42:38):
But then the manufacturingpiece is not our strength.
So we're going to be spending alot of our energy and time and
resources on trying tomanufacture products on the
continent, vis-a-vis justgetting the best of both worlds,
which is like global besttechnology.
But then if you use it in yourlocal botanicals to truly just
have the best product, maybe inthe future I don't know, it's
(43:07):
not a never situation, but it'slike when you're starting out as
a small brand, you truly wantto focus on certain areas and
work with experts and parts ofthe business.
Speaker 1 (43:10):
That is such a good point, Jenny, because I think
many businesses die on the altarof manufacturing, especially on
the continent.
I think a lot of them do.
So that is a really good pointto focus on what you're good at
and is really building thatbrand and meeting that need.
Thank you so much for sharingthat In terms of your pricing in
all these different markets,because I know, of course, I
(43:31):
want to ask you about logisticsand the challenge of moving
goods across the continent and Iknow that landing a good in
Lagos is nowhere the same priceas landing a good in Uganda.
A good in Lagos is nowhere thesame price as landing a good in
Uganda.
So what does your pricing looklike for this global brand that
you're building, you're tryingto put in markets across the
continent?
Speaker 2 (43:49):
When I think about the positioning from Cover.
We've always said we'rebuilding a mass-staged brand,
which is very important for us,and when I use the term
mass-staged just meaning that weare a brand that's aspirational
and affordable to the massmarket.
So we're not necessarilybuilding a mass brand, but we're
also not building a verypremium brand.
We're building a mass-searchedbrand that's very aspirational
(44:09):
and is very accessible to themass market, and I think for me
that has been.
I wouldn't lie supply chain isone of the things that keep me
up at night.
Speaker 1 (44:17):
It is tough.
Speaker 2 (44:18):
It is tough especially when we started with
making our products in korea andjust shipping from korea to
kenya.
And as obviously with moremarkets that you expand to, the
deeper the complexities thatcome with it.
So now we have to ship fromkorea to nigeria, korea to kenya
to uganda, and as you go intomore markets, so it is a bit of
a pain.
we've had logistical nightmaresat the beginning, like I said to
(44:40):
my team, we are going to out ofstock issues.
I'll be like oh my God, it wascute, because it was like oh my
God, our products are sellingout, so that's fantastic.
Speaker 1 (44:47):
But not anymore, because at this point you're
truly just losing money, andit's.
Speaker 2 (44:51):
how do we fix that?
From a logistical lack of tech,because, to be honest, we're
not necessarily enjoying anybenefits of shipping products
from Kenya to Nigeria.
Sometimes it feels a bitcheaper getting directly from
Korea into Nigeria, and so Ithink for us, look it's still.
I can't say that we've crackedit, but what we've tried to do
for sure is, as we think aboutour consumers in the different
(45:12):
markets we are not in the muchas my investors should not be
hearing this but, we're trulynot in the like maximized
profits, trying to raise ourprices just so we make the most
margins not at all.
We truly understand theconsumers that we are also
building for, and so we're trulybuilding, looking at how we're
driving a high quality productsat the best possible price.
(45:32):
A lot of that it might mean thatwe're taking hits on our
margins, but it's important.
There's no point putting aproduct out there that is super
expensive and nobody's pickingit off the shelves because, yeah
, you also know how the economyis at the moment.
Even in the two years or sothat we've launched in nigeria,
we've done only one priceincrease, as opposed to other
brands where it feels likealmost every month products is
price is changing.
(45:53):
I think for us that's importantbecause you know, we're trying
to absorb a lot of that as muchas we can, but at the other side
looking across the value chainand saying, okay, where can we,
where can pricing be impacted?
Everything is not just aboutthe end consumer, so it's
everywhere, from the supplier,right, how can we get better
pricing of the suppliers?
Can we look at what else are wedoing around, like packaging?
(46:14):
How can we minimize the cost?
Just looking at the full valuechain, and how do we minimize
that cost where it's not justpassing on costs to the supplier
?
But for my logistics andshipping and imports it's tough.
Like I always say, if there'sanything that I know, that
entrepreneurs who face this canspeak to a government, or when
people ask me, I've hadquestions like oh, if you were
(46:35):
to speak to a governmentofficial, what would you tell
them?
But part of you were to speakto a government official, what
would you tell them?
Part of it because in as muchas you are trying to support and
drive growth of peoplemanufacturing on the continent,
also knowing that these smallbrands are also still providing
employment and we're still doingother things to drive the
growth of the community, butjust to make it difficult, it is
(46:56):
every time you're shipping aproduct.
It's a nightmare, to be honest.
We're working through it.
Speaker 1 (47:01):
Thank you for what you do, and they say nothing
ventured, nothing gained.
Our hope is that supply chainissues will get better, because
that's the only way that ourbusinesses can grow.
And you're correct, you'recreating jobs, much needed jobs,
and it's something that shouldbe taken into consideration.
This has been a really greatconversation.
I could go on.
I have lots of questions, butwe have to wrap up, and so, in
(47:25):
wrapping up, I normally ask myguests two questions.
One's a reflection and anotheris advice.
So, in terms of reflecting inthis business that you've been
building over the last fouryears, what would you say are
one or two things that you aremost proud of, as you and your
co-founder have built thisbusiness over the last couple of
years?
Speaker 2 (47:45):
I would definitely say so.
Two things jumped to mind forme, and I think one is truly
building a brand that resonatesdeeply with women on the
continent.
That's truly empowered, becausewe're hearing the stories.
It's not just and I always sayit's not just about providing
quality skincare products orsolutions, but it's contributing
to shifting the narrative aboutbeauty and how beauty should be
(48:07):
inclusive, and I think that'sbeen incredibly powerful for me.
I think when we think about amarket in Africa, especially
Nigeria, where things likebleaching and hash scrubbing is
still a huge problem and a lotof that is coming because of the
power of what beauty?
What are the beauty standardsand what should beauty look like
, I think for us being able todisrupt and change the narrative
(48:29):
.
I was saying to someone theother day we had a launch of one
of our products recently wherewe truly built a story around
loving yourself unfiltered, andwe had a lunch and we had almost
200 people attend the lunch,from influencers to like our
consumers, and we told peoplethe dress code was come as your
authentic self and people camebare, faced, no makeup.
(48:51):
You don't see that happening.
I felt like we've truly beenable to achieve this drive, the
movement of just feelingempowered in yourself.
Right using makeup doesn't meananything, by the way, we're not
against that but, like I alwayssay, don't uncover healthy skin
, but the fact that we've beenable to drive a movement of just
being authentically yourself.
You don't have to change theway you look, you don't have to
(49:13):
like try to make yourself looklighter, because we've just
grown up with that mentality offair is more beautiful, but
that's core to the messaging andseeing that resonates with
women.
Oh my God, I think that hasjust been incredibly powerful
for me.
And I think the second thingwould be around fundraising.
There are two sides to thatcoin where it's a shame to feel
(49:34):
like you can count on yourfingers.
You know how many femalestartups have received funding
to a certain amount but the factthat we're able to change the
narrative, like I have peoplewho call me and say oh Jenny,
can you come and speak here?
You know you need to talk topeople about funding, because
Uncover within the beauty spaceis probably the only one that a
lot of people are hearing aboutUncover, I think, oh my God, how
(49:55):
are these guys within thebeauty space truly driving the
capital?
but how are these guys withinthe beauty space truly driving
your capital?
And I think that impact ofbeing able to drive that and
people see that it is possible,right, it is possible, and you
can empower other women andother startups to do the same.
I think that's truly somethingthat we don't take lightly and
want to obviously help andsupport and share as much as we
(50:17):
can.
Just make sure that in the nextfive years, the numbers should
be drastically different.
We should not be comparing 1.5or five women in Nigeria.
It should be a lot more thanthat.
Speaker 1 (50:28):
Yes, that is the goal .
That is the goal.
Thank you, jetty.
And so, in terms of advice, ifyou could give one piece of
advice to other women who arebuilding businesses across
Africa, what would that be?
Speaker 2 (50:46):
I'll definitely say be relentless and dream big.
I think let's be confident inthe solution and what we're
solving for and just truly dreamabout how can you scale.
I think be relentless aboutyour goal and your vision
because, to be honest, only you,only you can sell your story If
you truly know what you'rebuilding.
No one else can drive and sellit for you.
So be relentless, no matter howmany no's you get.
We've gotten so many no'strying to build this business
and raise funds for it, but youjust keep pushing.
(51:08):
It's not a oh, these guys don'tget it.
So maybe what I'm driving, I'mreally being ridiculous, but you
know, that you've got somethingpowerful, be relentless about
it and build that vision andstick to it and and I think, as
you build it, focus on trulybuilding a high quality,
sustainable business Right.
And I think if you have a highquality, sustainable business
that continues to offersolutions, that makes people's
(51:30):
lives better just stick at that.
No matter what it is thatyou're building, am I building
something quality, it'ssustainable, it's helping
people's lives?
I think stick at it and youwill find the right community
that you need to help you scalethat business.
Speaker 1 (51:46):
You will find it.
Thank you so much, daddy.
This has been a greatconversation, thank you.
Speaker 2 (51:51):
Amazing.
Thank you so much.
I really enjoyed theconversation.
Speaker 1 (51:54):
Thank you so much for listening.
If you're not alreadysubscribed, please do so on
Apple, spotify or wherever youget your podcasts, and don't
forget to leave us a review sowe know how we're doing.
I'm Akego Okoye and you havebeen listening to African
Business Stories.
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