Startup profile: Naturaz<\/p>\n
Founded by: Mumbi and Vuyo Dunjwa<\/p>\n
Year founded: 2014<\/p>\n
Headquarters: Collegeville, PA<\/p>\n
Sector: Health and Beauty<\/p>\n
Funding and valuation: ~$1 million raised<\/p>\n
Key ecosystem partners: Bucks County Industrial Development Authority, Ben Franklin Technology Partners, Philadelphia Community Impact Fund, JVS Philadelphia Fund for Women, PACT<\/p>\n
Mumbi Dunjwa spent years working in chemistry, nuclear medicine and health technology. There was one problem she kept coming back to: her own hair.<\/p>\n
Dunjwa, who was born in Kenya and moved to the United States for college in the \u201890s, watched women around her in her community lose hair, snap off braids and reach for products that never quite worked.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI came up with this hypothesis,\u201d Dunjwa said. \u201cCan I create something \u2014 a formula, a product \u2014 that infuses and sustains moisture in hair?\u201d<\/p>\n
She turned her chemistry expertise to curly and coily hair care and, around 2014, began developing Naturaz<\/a>, a vegan clean beauty company making what she calls science-backed hair-care products. Now based in Collegeville with lab space at the PA Biotech Center of Bucks County<\/a> in Doylestown, the company has raised more than $1 million and sells in more than 60 retail locations, including TJ Maxx and, most recently, Texas-based supermarket H-E-B<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are truly at an inflection point,\u201d Dunjwa said.<\/p>\n From health technology to hair care<\/p>\n Dunjwa grew up near Nairobi in an academic household. Her father was a college professor, her mother a high school teacher. After high school, she moved to the US, where she studied chemistry and nuclear medicine technology at Worcester State University in Massachusetts. Her early career took her into nuclear medicine labs and hospitals, where she prepared radioactive materials used in diagnostic imaging.<\/p>\n \u201cI was one of the people experiencing the lack of solutions.\u201d<\/p>\n Mumbi Dunjwa, Naturaz<\/p>\n She later earned a degree in information systems management from Carnegie Mellon University and joined GlaxoSmithKline, where she worked in research and development technology for more than a decade.<\/p>\n At the same time, Dunjwa was on what she called a journey with her own hair.<\/p>\n She had grown up noticing women with hair loss around their edges, which she believed could be connected to chemical relaxers, tight braids or extensions. After moving to the US, she struggled with detangling and maintaining her own hair as the available products did not keep it moisturized enough.<\/p>\n \u201cI saw the pain,\u201d she said. \u201cI was one of the people experiencing the pain and the lack of solutions.\u201d<\/p>\n Dunjwa also became concerned about the ingredients used in many beauty products. She said Naturaz was built around both performance and safety, with a product line \u2014 including a 3-in-1 conditioning shampoo, hair and scalp moisturizer and a kids detangler \u2014 that omits more than 30 ingredients the company views as harmful or undesirable.<\/p>\n \u201cWe actually sit at the intersection of health and beauty,\u201d Dunjwa said.<\/p>\n Building the product before building the brand<\/p>\n Naturaz did not begin with a major investment round.<\/p>\n When Dunjwa started researching the market and experimenting with formulations using savings to fund it, she was still balancing a demanding career. Then she took the leap.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI left the pharmaceutical industry, and it really feels like I just sort of jumped off the cliff,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Her husband, Vuyo Dunjwa, became deeply involved in the business, bringing experience in finance, operations, logistics and strategy.\u00a0<\/p>\n For product development, she drew on ingredients rooted in traditions of Africa and the Americas, including shea butter, coconut oil and jojoba.<\/p>\n The first several years were devoted to research and early formulation, she said, followed by testing through local retail and vendor programs in Philadelphia. That helped her refine the line as she collected customer feedback.<\/p>\n Customers told the company their hair felt softer. Parents said their children did not cry during detangling. Others gave thoughts on scent, texture and packaging.<\/p>\n That feedback shaped not only the formulas, but the brand, labels, pricing and retail strategy. Dunjwa said Naturaz\u2019s top customer has come back more than 30 times and spent more than $2,000 through the company\u2019s online store.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen people discover it and see what it does for them, they keep coming back,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Accessibility over \u2018prestige\u2019: Why Naturaz chose big retail<\/p>\n Naturaz launched its full brand at Cosmoprof, a major beauty trade show, in 2022. That helped the company attract interest from TJX Companies<\/a>, which started carrying Naturaz products around 2023. Other retailers, including ShopRite supermarket locations and beauty supply stores, followed.<\/p>\n While the cost to produce Naturaz products and its science-based development could easily put it in the luxury category, she said, Dunjwa wanted it to be as accessible as possible to women and girls who could benefit from safer, better-performing products.<\/p>\n \u201cWe couldn\u2019t go prestige, even though we had a prestige product,\u201d Dunjwa said.<\/p>\n Instead, Naturaz aimed for what Dunjwa calls middle tier, with products generally priced between $14.99 and $19.99.<\/p>\n Once the company had market validation and needed to build infrastructure for manufacturing, fulfillment, packaging and electronic data interchange, the reality of how much the business would cost hit Dunjwa.<\/p>\n \u201cWe realized very quickly that, oh my gosh, this is not enough,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n An early turning point came through The Business Center in Philadelphia<\/a>, led by executive director Pamela Rich-Wheeler, who connected Dunjwa to the regional investment community. Naturaz\u2019s first outside check of $25,000 came from the Bucks County Industrial Development Authority<\/a>, where it was one of the inaugural companies in a county-run pitch competition. Bucks County has remained a partner since, she said, through both investment and loans.<\/p>\n