Mayvenn, a Black-owned beauty, and tech firm, has raised $40 million in a Series C funding round. The company, co-founded by CEO Diishan Imira in 2012, plans to use the funding to expand its partnership with Walmart.

With the Mayvenn platform, stylists can earn money by selling beauty products. The platform also offers salon services through its curated network of beauty pros. Consumers can search for and book hair stylists in their local area. The services marketplace combines an e-commerce platform with services.

“Mayvenn exists because I wanted to empower the community to have more ownership over the beauty market that we support and we pump billions and billions and billions of dollars into,” Imira told GHOGH Podcast in a two-part interview from February 2020.

Listen to GHOGH with Jamarlin Martin | Episode 47: Diishan Imira Jamarlin talks to Diishan Imira, founder and CEO of Mayvenn, a platform that empowers hair stylists to take back ownership of the beauty market.

He continued, “I used to live in China. After college, I moved to China. I was there for two years, and I had been importing products since 2003. I just started buying stuff off the street in China, and I would send it back home, and people would sell it for me, send me the money back. And then that turned into a full-on business where I was just buying containers of everything, furniture, art, clothing. I would import it back to Miami, or Atlanta had a warehouse. I would post stuff on Craigslist. I had a showroom, and I was just hustling, no order to it, no structure. It was just like cash in a backpack, go to China, give them some money, watch them load up my container, meet the container at the port. Bring all my shit to the warehouse, post some ads on Craigslist.”

The funding round was led by Cleveland Ave, with participation from the Growth Equity business within Goldman Sachs Asset Management and a16z.

Mayvenn has a network of over 50,000 hair stylists nationwide, and with its Walmart partnership, it will bring tech-enabled, physical beauty experiences into Walmart stores nationwide, according to a press release. 

With the latest round of funding, Mayvenn’s plans to expand its partnership with, creating more in-store Mayvenn Beauty Lounges within Walmart nationwide.

“Mayvenn is a leading innovator in the beauty industry. The company has a thoughtful and profitable business strategy that also supports diversity, access and entrepreneurship,” said Dr. Mingu Lee, Managing Partner, Cleveland Avenue Tech Fund, told Forbes.

“In addition to innovating the beauty industry, Mayvenn is creating economic opportunity for independent stylists, who are primarily women of color,” says Hillel Moerman, managing director within Goldman Sachs Asset Management. “We believe that Mayvenn’s omni channel approach, combined with its direct financial impact on local communities, embodies the goals of our One Million Black Women initiative, and we look forward to continuing to collaborate with the Mayvenn team as they scale their business,” referencing Goldman Sachs’ goal to improve the lives of one million Black women by 2030. The company says they have pledged $10 billion in direct investment capital and $100 million in philanthropic support to advance racial equity.

Photo: Diishan Imira is the founder and CEO of Mayvenn, Inc., a tech company that reshapes how sale retail products are distributed. Photo: Anita Sanikop