Men’s skin care brand Disco is ready to expand.
The brand that launched in 2019 led by Benjamin Smith recently closed a $5 million seed round following a year of triple-digit growth month-over-month since summer 2020.
Midnight Venture Partners led the round that began in January and had participation from Tecovas founder Paul Hedrick; Bryan Mahoney, founder of Arfa Brands/Former CTO of Glossier, and Richards Rainwater founder Taylor O’Neil. Disco plans to use the funding to accelerate its growth, with new products, an expanded marketing team and new retail doors.
Disco is available in 40 Nordstrom doors and is expanding to all doors, also Amazon Inc., Urban Outfitters Inc. and Anthropologie with plans to open with another big retail partner.
“Many brands were already doing moderately well and after COVID-19 hit, they started to do better because of online shopping,” Smith said. “We weren’t in a strong position when COVID-19 started and had a lot of figuring out to do, but once we did we started to grow to scale.”
Smith entered the men’s grooming and personal care world from the fitness world. He opened CrossFit gym Top Tier Fitness at Wake Forest and acquired more gyms before expanding beyond CrossFit to a health and wellness focus and selling his gyms. He launched Disco with seven vegan, gluten-free and paraben-free products.
He said the brand had a slow start, but grew quickly when they began communicating how their products help with common skin issues like razor burn, in-grown hairs and acne. Smith said the brand is hiring an influencer manager, social media manager, head of growth and director of operations for “phase two” of the business.
The round comes amidst a men’s personal care renaissance that has seen a myriad of brands enter the market in a few years and recently Harry’s increase its valuation to $1.7 billion. According to Allied Market Research, the men’s personal care market is expected to hit $166 billion by 2022.
