How Curly Girl Movement Funded Europe's First Curly Hair Brand Store

Curly Girl Movement makes curl care products for people with naturally curly hair. Founded in Amsterdam in 2014, the brand grew from a blog and YouTube channel into a product line, a salon, and the first curly hair brand store in a European city centre. Curly Girl Movement now ships to customers across Europe, the US, the UK, and Australia, with a range of ten products formulated in-house.

From attic salon to Amsterdam city centre

The problem that started Curly Girl Movement was personal before it was a business. In 2014, curly hair products were hard to find in Europe. Anything worth using had to be imported from the US, with the shipping costs and customs charges that came with it. Shamilla Dewi began doing her own research publicly: blogging about how to care for and embrace natural hair, making YouTube videos reviewing products and sharing techniques. The audience found her quickly.

Before the word "influencer" had entered the mainstream, she had followers across Europe and beyond. Those followers started asking if she would treat their hair in person. She turned the attic of the Amsterdam home she shared with her partner Jason into a salon, watched it fill up immediately, and found a new problem: she couldn't always find the right product for everyone who came in.

Her answer was to formulate her own. She spent two years studying to become a chemist while running the salon, and in 2018 Curly Girl Movement launched its first two products: a styling gel and a leave-in conditioner. They sold out in the first month. The second batch sold out within two months.

The trajectory continued. Jason had been helping part-time while working in banking. In 2019, he left that career to join the business full-time. A first salon in Amsterdam opened during the COVID pandemic in 2020 and performed well from the start. In 2022, Curly Girl Movement opened a flagship store in the centre of Amsterdam. It was a historic moment for the brand.

It was the first curly hair brand store in the city centre of Amsterdam. In Europe, there isn't any hair brand store like it. We are the first.

Funding the store meant outrunning the cash

Curly Girl Movement had grown without external funding. Everything, from product formulation to the salon fit-out to the flagship store, came from the business's own reserves. When the flagship opened in 2022, it was proof of how far the brand had come. It was also expensive.

We used our own cash and our own funds to open up the store in the city centre of Amsterdam. Wayflyer came at the right time to still purchase the inventory, still pay all the employees, and just keep the business running. Otherwise, we would have had a stop.

The business was growing online at the same time. The purchase orders that had sustained the brand through 2021 needed to grow with the demand, and the cash to fund those orders had gone into the store. Traditional bank financing was not the answer. Jason had worked in banking and understood the process well enough to know it didn't fit them: too slow, too much paperwork, too conventional for a business that had never operated conventionally.

I don't really like the traditional way of doing things. We needed the funding very quickly.

A partner's recommendation pointed them toward Wayflyer. The fit was clear from the first round.

Six rounds and counting

Since late 2022, Curly Girl Movement has used Wayflyer approximately six times, drawing on funding rounds that roll with each new purchase order cycle.

Every time we do a new purchase order, Wayflyer comes in.

What kept them coming back wasn't the price. Jason is direct about that: Wayflyer is not the cheapest, but he doesn't mind paying for the extra service. What kept them coming back was speed and responsiveness. Last-minute funding requests were handled fast. And where other lenders operate behind a screen of process and procedure, Wayflyer offered something more direct.

I could call them even on a Sunday. Sometimes I lose track of which day it is. I just call the account manager on a Sunday, and it's nice that they still pick up the phone.

Looking ahead, Curly Girl Movement is moving into B2B, targeting salons across the Netherlands before expanding the focus to Germany and the UK. The purchase orders ahead will be larger.

The demand and the purchase orders will go up for sure.

Interested in following in Curly Girl Movement's footsteps? Wayflyer has funded over 6,000 businesses worldwide with $6 billion worth of working capital, backed by world-leading financial institutions. Apply in minutes and access funds in hours. Start your application today.