Dive Brief:
- Custom hair care brand Function of Beauty has expanded its distribution through a wholesale partnership with Amazon, per an email release.
- For Amazon, Function of Beauty is offering customers its Target line of products, alongside bundles and kits for curly, wavy and straight hair. Customers can streamline the process of receiving a fully personalized hair care regimen sent directly to their doorstep, per the company.
- In addition to Amazon, the brand is now offering both its Target and Pro line from Sephora on their own website, with the goal of providing a one-stop shopping experience for customers.
Dive Insight:
Function of Beauty, founded in 2015 by Hien Nguyen Kaplan, Joshua Maciejewski and Zahir Dossa, has been expanding from its DTC website to other retail outlets the past couple of years.
It launched hair styling products exclusively at Target in January 2023, which were new and added to the brand’s existing hair, skin and body care merchandise.
In August of last year, the brand launched the Function of Beauty Pro line at Sephora online and in 300 of the retailer’s stores across the U.S. That launch featured shampoos and conditioners for different hair types along with a selection of nine Hair Goal Concentrate formulas. Those products are now also available on the Function website as well.
As noted on Kaplan’s LinkedIn page, Function of Beauty was founded by MIT engineers and an industry leading chemist to develop personalized hair care products. Co-founder Kaplan describes how customers may complete a hair profile and hair goals “before our algorithm develops a unique formula tailored to their needs.”
There are some 54 trillion combinations that can be customized into unique products, per Kaplan. The company website claims that its proprietary algorithm enables the brand to create a unique formula every 13 seconds. The brand’s shampoo and conditioner are sulfate-free and paraben-free.
Function of Beauty has experienced several executive changes the past few years as it began to expand product distribution. Co-founder Zahir Dossa left his position as CEO in 2021 and became board director. He was succeeded as CEO by Alexandra Papazian, a long time executive with L’Oréal.
And in 2022, the company brought on Marianna Trofimova, another former L’Oréal executive, as chief marketing officer.
Function of Beauty has had significant financial investment since forming in 2015. According to Crunchbase, the brand has raised over $247 million in six rounds starting in 2015 with the last one being in January 2022.
