Odele, a fast-emerging hair care brand based in Minneapolis, got its start during the pandemic after three co-founders put their heads together to concoct a business. It is now flourishing.
Co-founders Britta Chatterjee, Lindsay Holden and Shannon Kearney launched Odele as a Target-exclusive brand in 2020. In its first year, Odele, which highlights clean ingredients and affordability, combed in $5 million in sales. From what the founders described as natural growth in their reputation and high loyalty, Odele grew 30% year-over-year in 2022 and 55% in 2023 to reach over $30 million in sales this past year. To date, Odele has sold over 5.7 million bottles of hair and body care products.
Odele is also extending past Target Corp., as it entered CVS and Ulta Beauty stores in February. In November, the brand hitched an investment partnership with Boston-based private equity firm Stride Consumer Partners, which is joining Odele’s board as an active minority partner. Chatterjee, who leads Odele as CEO, said Stride will enable the company to continue expanding not only with capital but experience with other beauty brands.
While Stride and Odele didn’t disclose the investment amount, according to a Form D filing, Odele raised about $1.9 million in private capital in its most recent funding round from investors.
Chaterjee and Holden first met in 2008 in graduate school at the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota. Later on, Chatterjee met Kearney while consulting for the natural hair care company, Renpure, where Kearney ran the operations. After spending the next decade in different corporate careers and building their families, they decided to get together and brainstorm ideas for entrepreneurship. After looking at the shelves for hair care products, they said they didn't see a product with high-quality ingredients that wasn’t terribly expensive. Most of Odele's products are under $12. The brand offers 21 hair care products to be sold in brick-and-mortar stores, as well four body washes, which are only being sold online.
Despite getting started during the pandemic, it was the right time, right idea, Holden said.
“Adding gasoline on the fire was Target’s acceptance of the brand,” Chatterjee added.
Before Target, Odele raised $1 million from a friends and family round in 2019. By 2020, the co-founders found themselves in what they described as the “wild west.” All at once, they found themselves with a new Target partnership that was soon going nationwide as well as fickle supply chains threatening to make acquiring global ingredients unreliable.
“We had this scrappy, small, mighty team,” Holden said. They describe themselves as hyper-productive working moms as well as entrepreneurs who are always hungry for problems to fix. Individually, they realized they each have their strengths to handle different levers of management. Chatterjee, whose strengths are in business strategy and forecasting, as CEO. Kearney, who Chatterjee calls a 3D printer and makes things happen, as chief operating officer. Holden, who understands branding and what is going to gel with the consumer, as chief branding officer.
They now have 12 employees and contract manufacturers locally in Minneapolis and Mound. The trio wants to focus on building Odele 2.0, which they say will require a "village" of leaders across marketing, operations and HR.
Corrections were made about how the co-founders met and the timeframe of product launches.
