Latina-Founded Haircare Brand Eva+Avo Makes Major Retail Push At Target, Walmart And CVS

Latina-owned avocado oil-powered haircare brand Eva+Avo is entering a store near you.

It’s more than doubling its retail reach by launching at 1,030 Target doors and landing on 800 end-caps at the chain following an online debut in 2023 and expanding at CVS to over 3,500 doors, up from 250, and Walmart to 1,250 doors, up from 1,000. Eva+Avo is carried at grocers H-E-B and Giant Eagle, too. Both Eva+Avo and its sister company, Carson Life, a wide-ranging mass-market beauty brand with haircare, skincare and supplements, saw sales increase 20% from 2023 to 2024, according to founder Sonia Guzman.

Started in 2021, Eva+Avo, which primarily serves Latinas and offers customer service in Spanish around the clock, has learned 76% of its customers like to visit stores to buy its products in person. Guzman says, “We have to be where they are.”

Retailers want to be the places Latinas shop, and they over-index in beauty spending. Market research firm NielsenIQ estimates that Hispanics constitute 16.6% of the total beauty dollars spent in the United States, but 14.4% of the households spending on beauty. There are roughly 65 million Hispanics in the U.S., which constitute the second-fastest growing ethnic group, and Hispanic buying power is figured to be $2.4 trillion. About a quarter of the babies born in the country from 2021 to 2023 were Hispanic.

In addition to where its customers like to shop, Eva+Avo has learned what they like to buy, and they’re interested in particular in specialized products for curly hair. The brand has introduced a new line of them containing the products Curly Hair Shampoo, Curly Hair Conditioner, Curly Hair Leave In Cream, Curly Hair Nutritive Mask and Scalp Avocado Oil priced each at $10.99. They’ll be available at CVS along with $14.99 Avocado & Cacao Scalp Scrub. Target is stocking everything except the scrub.

Eva+Avo extended from haircare to body care in 2023, and its body care products are sold by Walmart and H-E-B. “We decided to get into body care as a complement to our personal care rituals to promote our mission to provide self-love and self-care to our community,” explains Guzman. “Also, our customers love our unique cacao and mystic herbs scent on our haircare products. They were asking for more products with good-for-you ingredients, vegan, paraben-free and sulfate-free.”

“We want to be the No. 1 Latinx brand in the United States.”

Guzman is a member of a small group of Latina founders who’ve raised $10 million or more in funding. Last year, she reports she raised $5 million, including $2.1 million in convertible notes and debt. Among the investors backing Carson Life and Eva+Avo are CSA Partners, Park City Angels, Sacramento Angels and Wisconsin Investment Partners. In 2023, Guzman shared she raised $2 million in bridge funding following $8.5 million in series A funding and $1.55 million in seed funding.

At the time, she told Beauty Independent, “There was no Latina when I started to raise who had ever raised more than $10 million, and I started this company to become that person. I always remember my why. There’s so much more we can do for our community,”

Eva+Avo recruits over 300 influencers and celebrities, ranging from micro-influencers to telenovela stars, on a monthly basis to create content that it amplifies. With its retail expansion, the brand plans to have influencers spotlight its products on shelves. Guzman emphasizes that the Latina customer base is incredibly nuanced and Eva+Avo works hard to tap influencers who “resonate with our culture.”

“You have 17 countries, and even though we speak Spanish, we’re so different,” she says. “Maybe that’s why there are not that many brands there or maybe multinational companies might not be able to fully understand the complexity of our culture.”

Miami-based Carson Life and Evo+Avo regularly field requests to go international and has been in discussions with retailers such as H-E-B, Walmart and Ulta Beauty about traveling to Mexico. Ulta is slated to open in Mexico this year in partnership with retail operator Axo. Currently, however, Guzman is adamant her business is focused on the United States. She says, “We want to be the No. 1 Latinx brand in the United States first.”