By CultureBanx Team
- Procter & Gamble Acquired Walker & Co for an undisclosed amount
- Half of Walker & Co’s revenue comes from its deal with Target
Bevel, the razor company that’s in tune with cultural skincare trends has just been scooped up by an OG in the consumer product space Procter & Gamble (PG +2.14%). Tristan Walker’s company will become a wholly owned subsidiary of P&G and he’ll remain at the helm of the business as CEO. Neither company disclosed the financial terms of the deal, but both of them have a lot to gain by joining forces.
Why This Matters: Procter & Gamble is searching for new ways to innovate and generate interest in its stable of legacy products, especially among black millennial men in particular. Walker & Co will be able to leverage P&G’s extensive marketing resources as it looks to scale its products reach. Half of the company’s revenue comes from a deal Walker struck with Target (TGT +0.19%) back in 2015.
Recode reported that Procter & Gamble paid somewhere between $20 million and $40 million for the company, based on how much investors had already seeded into the company. Some investors included Upfront Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz and Queensbridge Venture Partners, which is backed by rapper Nas.
Procter & Gamble paid somewhere between $20 million and $40 million for the company
In addition to Bevel, Walker’s Form brand, a 10-product haircare line that launched last year, received rave reviews but lacked the resources to properly promote the product, according to Fast Company. The publication wrote that now Walker will be able to tap into the $2 billion R&D budget to dive deeper into hair innovations for people of color and see them fully realized.
Walker’s company is following in the footsteps of a couple of other black skincare and haircare businesses that have decided to join forces with major companies like Carol’s Daughter and Sundial Brands.
What’s Next: During the first half of 2019, Walker and his lean 15 employee team will move to Atlanta, a city with a 54% black population. Walker said Atlanta accounts for the largest percentage of his customers by location. They will continue working on their brands Bevel and Form from the so-called “black mecca.”
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