Common Heir, the BIPOC-led beauty brand with sustainability at its core, has raised $2.5 million in total funding, over $1 million from its initial goal. The raise required more than 100 conversations with investors, said Angela Ubias, co-founder and Chief Product Officer of Common Heir, many of whom said they were skeptical consumers would care about sustainability. Trousdale Ventures, Mucker Capital, and strategic partners ultimately contributed to the raise.

Since launching in April 2021 with one product, Common Heir has quickly established itself as an innovator with completely plastic-free packaging. The brand has exceeded forecasts with Credo Beauty, its retail partner, and generated more than six-figure sales in its first nine months.

The brand will use the resources raised to expand its product line with a gentle-but-mighty 0.2 percent Retinol Serum developed with melanin-rich and sensitive skin in mind. Common Heir has also doubled its team and broadened its innovation, research and development, and marketing efforts across the board, with more sustainable innovation, product development and retail expansion in the pipeline.

“We raised funding to invest in innovation to bring our vision of inclusive and sustainable luxury beauty to life, to finally pay ourselves a living wage and to secure a talented team to help us,” said Cary Lin, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Common Heir. “Building an innovation-led brand is expensive because we’re asking our partners and customers to try things they’ve never done before. The narrative of bootstrapping forever should be sharply questioned because it restricts entrepreneurship to certain people. We also wanted to work with the most innovative people and partners and pay them fairly, period.”

The brand is grateful to have more resources to support innovation without having to pass costs on to the consumer.

“It’s high time for women of color to be helming luxury beauty brands. Last year, as we set out to bring Common Heir to life, we finally saw a chance to reimagine skin care that was, and always will be, developed with folks like us in mind; a brand with formulas that are luxe, clinically-backed and made with carefully selected, innovative ingredients,” said Angela, a long-time consumer products veteran who has helped build more than 50 clean and indie beauty brands in her career.