Lily Collins Joins Silas Capital And G9 Ventures In Celebrity Hairstylist-Founded Roz’s Oversubscribed Seed Round

Before launching her clean luxury haircare brand, Roz, in 2021, Mara Roszak spent two decades as a hairstylist handling the hair of some of Hollywood’s brightest stars—Emma Stone sported a loose, polished look courtesy of Roszak to the Academy Awards earlier this year when she won the best actress Oscar for her role in “Poor Things”—and working for large brands like L’Oréal Paris and Tresemmé.

Silas Capital and G9 Ventures believe that deep expertise connected to celebrity renown is a big draw for contemporary consumers and could one day put Roz, pronounced “rose,” in the esteemed pantheon of hairstylist-started brands scoring lucrative exits. (Think Vidal Sassoon, Frédéric Fekkai, Ouai and Bumble and bumble). Silas Capital, backer of Makeup By Mario, the makeup brand from makeup artist Mario Dedivanovic that’s adhered to a similar model, has led Roz’s oversubscribed seed round, and G9 Ventures played what is described as a “significant” role in it.

The amount of seed funding wasn’t disclosed, but Silas Capital, which recently raised $150 million for its consumer growth fund, typically invests $3 million to over $15 million in growth-stage brands generating $5 million to $50 million in annual revenues. Along with Roz and Makeup by Mario, the firm’s portfolio includes beauty and wellness brands Cake, Sakara, Herbivore and Vacation. Clarins owner Famille C acquired its previous portfolio brand Ilia in 2022. The publication Women’s Wear Daily reported that Makeup by Mario is on the market and projected to hit $150 million to $200 million in sales this year.

G9 Ventures’ portfolio contains beauty brands Matter of Fact, Kitsch, Evolvetogether, Kosas, Westman Atelier, Starface, Saie and Ami Colé. G9 Ventures and Silas Capital were joined by “Emily in Paris” star Lily Collins and makeup artists and hairstylists Melanie Inglessis, Rachel Goodwin, Pati Dubroff, Sami Knight, Kylee Heath and Ericka Verrett in Roz’s seed round. Actresses Mila Kunis, Daisy Ridley, Zoe Saldana and Brooklyn Decker were involved in an earlier friends and family round.

Silas Capital’s only other haircare deal came in 2021, when it made a venture investment in prestige haircare brand Ceremonia. Since then, haircare brand K18 sold to Unilever for an estimated $500 million to $600 million, and the prestige haircare category as been on a tear. Through June of this year, market research resource Circana figures prestige haircare sales rose 10% in dollars from the same period last year as premiuimization attracted consumers to higher-priced haircare products.

“This is our first big bet in hair, and it was clearly a gap in the portfolio given the momentum of prestige hair as a category and the big successes that you’ve seen,” says Brian Thorne, partner at Silas Capital. “So, it was something that we were proactively seeking out.”

Turning to Roz, he adds, “No one else is owning this positioning of prestige clean yet professional-level performance. We’ve seen across categories the notion of efficacy being elevated to the top of the priority list, and that can be achieved through ingredient story, but I think, more interestingly with Mara, the professional credibility of having lived and breathed this category for 20 years…We’re getting her out there more to really push that message of authenticity, credibility, efficacy with her as the face.”

“No one else is owning this positioning of prestige clean yet professional-level performance.”

Roszak says, “Silas has done such amazing work in the beauty space. They’re very founder-friendly and supportive partners. So, I was thrilled to connect with Brian, and it was very clear to me that they would be great partners for myself and for Roz to grow because we share similar values.”

Roz has already registered substantial growth and is profitable. Roszak shares its sales multiplied 10X last year, and it’s been propelling year-over-year triple-digit sales increases at retail and in salons. Roz’s primary customers are women from their early 20s to mid-40s. It’s carried by the retailers and e-tailers Credo, Neiman Marcus, Goop, Nordstrom and Revolve as well as independent stores and e-commerce outlets like Broome Street General, Beautyhabit and Flyte.70.

Roz is also in a burgeoning network of salons such as Flower Hair Studio, Andy LeCompte Salon, Interior Hair, Barrow Salon and Homecoming Salon. Roszak is co-owner of the hair salon Mare in West Hollywood, Calif. She plans to double down on Roz’s presence at trendsetting salons, where she spearheads training and says the brand is seeing “incredible conversion.” Pairing professional distribution with beauty retail is a proven roadmap in the beauty industry that K18 executed with precision.

Direct-to-consumer distribution is responsible for a small portion of Roz’s sales, but Thorne predicts that channel could be supercharged with greater paid marketing. He says, “There’s not been a ton of focus on paid being spent through DTC, but this is a high AOV [average order value]-type of product, really low CAC [cost of acquisition] and high gross margin.”

Roz began with a single product, Santa Lucia Styling Oil. Another oil, Willow Glen Treatment Oil, joined its assortment within months. Currently, the brand has eight products priced from $39 to $52. Milk Hair Serum is the hero product, and Foundation Mask is the latest product. An earthy scent inspired by Big Sur is a throughline in the range.

Roszak says she’s “creating core products that really can create any look you’re looking for on any hair type. I have one hair kit and everything that goes in that kit needs to work on Zoe Saldana, Lily Collins, Mila Kunis and Emma Stone, very different hair types, and same with my clients at the salon. I’ll see 10 clients in a day, every client with a different set of issues and hair types, and my products need to be able to work across the board.”

Even if consumer caution dampens beauty sales, Thorne asserts Roz is well situated to steal share from competitors. “Women are still going to ultimately wash their hair every day,” he says. “If we can put forth a product that delivers on performance with a clean ingredient profile at a price point that makes sense, I think we have a good opportunity to grow the business.”