Jenni Kayne-founded natural skincare brand Oak Essentials has secured first-round dual funding from Silas Capital and Unilever Ventures to fuel the brand’s expansion, allowing for enhanced product development, increased marketing efforts, and broader distribution.
Oak Essentials, the quintessential California-based beauty brand, has successfully raised its first round of funding from two prominent investors in the beauty sector. Silas Capital, known for its strategic investments in emerging consumer brands, and Unilever Ventures, the venture capital arm of the global consumer goods giant, have joined forces to provide inaugural funding for the promising skincare brand, which just had its 3-year anniversary.
With the backing of these industry veterans, Oak Essentials is poised to accelerate its mission of self-care, simplified—luxurious body and skincare that values efficacy alongside a sensorial, spa-like experience and minimalist aesthetic. The promise is simple: moisture-rich essentials that inspire intentional daily rituals for healthy, youthful skin.
“We love how Jenni Kayne has applied tasteful curation to create Oak Essentials as a luxurious beauty lifestyle brand centered around ritual, relaxation, and sensorial experiences reminiscent of a visit to the spa – at your own convenience. The brand delivers for consumers who are increasingly embracing the holistic wellness benefits of beauty products with an appreciation for self-care and beauty routines,” said Anna Ohlsson-Baskerville, Partner at Unilever Ventures.
Jenni Kayne, known for her eponymous fashion, lifestyle, and home collections, founded Oak Essentials in her vision. While the brands are separate entities, they occasionally collaborate for major moments—like the recent Jenni Kayne Farmhouse and Oak Essentials Wellness Club—to immerse customers in their tastefully curated worlds where they can engage their shared customer base and reinforce their shared aesthetic.
In the three years since Oak Essentials’ inception, the brand has launched 26 products, initially focusing on skincare before successfully expanding into body care.
Oak Essentials has sold over half a million products since launch, with over 8,300 5-star reviews across all offerings. The brand’s hero products, including the cult-classic Moisture Rich Balm, Ritual Oil, and Dew Body Oil, have been consistent best-sellers since the initial product launch.
“We couldn’t be more thrilled to announce our partnership with Silas Capital and Unilever Ventures. Their investment is a powerful endorsement of our vision to offer spa-like and effective skincare rituals for sophisticated consumers to experience in their own homes. Having spent the last three years building our DTC business, we’re incredibly proud of how far we’ve come but are eagerly looking ahead to this next phase. We are so grateful to have Silas and Unilever Ventures’ support and expertise as we place focus on the key areas that we believe will solidify us as leaders in prestige beauty; keeping product innovation at the forefront and building upon our existing assortment and categories, expanding our distribution channels with new and upcoming retail partnerships, and deepening our focus on sustainability as a core pillar of the brand. This is such an incredible milestone for Oak Essentials and we’re so excited for what’s to come,” said Lauren Harris, CEO at Oak Essentials.
In January, Lauren Harris transitioned from COO at Jenni Kayne to CEO of Oak Essentials. In her new role, she leverages her extensive experience and passion for brand growth to drive Oak Essentials forward. Under her leadership, the brand has become a key player in the skincare industry. Lauren is committed to keeping the customer at the center of every decision, expanding retail partnerships, and enhancing the direct-to-consumer channel, resulting in significant revenue growth and a stronger market presence.
“Jenni is the consummate tastemaker, and over the past few years has artfully reflected her ethos in the development of Oak Essentials’ multi-category assortment of clean, luxe essentials,” said Brian Thorne, Partner at Silas Capital.
“Beyond the elevated aesthetic of these products, they truly do deliver on efficacy – which has been one of the key drivers of the brand’s tremendous growth to date. We’re thrilled to partner with Jenni and Unilever Ventures for this next chapter, supporting both Oak’s impressive e-commerce momentum, as well as its quickly scaling wholesale channel.”
2024 has been transformative for Oak Essentials, marked by substantial growth. The brand has evolved from being DTC only to being stocked at ShopBop and Nordstrom, with more retail relationships anticipated. Recognized as one of NewBeauty’s NB100, Oak Essentials is set to nearly double its revenue.
This summer saw a standout moment for the brand with the launch of The Jenni Kayne Farmhouse and Oak Essentials Wellness Club, an experiential lifestyle and wellness retreat and showcase in Tivoli, New York. Initially open to VIPs, editors, and influencers, and opening to the public this fall, the Wellness Club provides a brand-immersive skincare experience to forge lasting connections and to introduce the brand to the East Coast.
Most recently, Oak Essentials launched Renew Face Polish, which contains biodegradable, sustainably sourced ingredients and was the first to be packaged in eco-friendly tree-free paper cartons. Soon, all products in the line will be housed in these same environmentally conscious containers and clinical testing has been initiated to assure product quality and efficacy. Upcoming launches through the end of 2024 will include a moisturizing cleanser and a first foray into bath products.
“Oak Essentials was born from my lifelong pursuit of intentional living, a journey routed in nature, that inspired me to create a refined, botanical-based skincare collection inspired by the transformative power of spa experiences. As we celebrate Oak Essentials’ third year, this partnership with Silas Capital and Unilever Ventures marks an exciting new chapter for the brand. I’m thrilled for Oak Essentials to collaborate with these respected industry leaders as we push the boundaries of what clean, prestige beauty can be,” said Jenni Kayne, founder of Oak Essentials
About Oak Essentials
Oak Essentials was created by visionary tastemaker Jenni Kayne, renowned for her esteemed lifestyle brand. Her inherent style of luxurious living and years of perfecting her own clean skin-care routine led to the creation of Oak Essentials. Inspired by a transformative experience of indulgent treatments, our promise is simple: we offer a meticulous assortment of skincare essentials that value efficacy and results alongside experience and aesthetic. We deliver simple, spa-quality self-care, designed to elevate daily rituals effortlessly.
About Silas Capital
Since 2012, Silas Capital has been an active emerging growth equity and venture capital investor that partners with consumer brands, in order to help these companies achieve significant revenue growth and profitability, improve operational efficiency, and increase brand recognition and value.
The complementary backgrounds of the firm’s partners comprise executive leadership roles across growth equity and venture capital firms, as well as operating companies, which allows the group to deliver on a unique value-add proposition to the management teams, founders and companies with whom Silas partners.
The firm not only invests capital to help these companies grow, but also brings significant resources and capabilities to actively assist in the growth of revenue through its expertise in e-commerce and digital expansion, alongside its knowledge of traditional wholesale and retail channels. Previous and current investments for Silas include Bare Snacks, Bellroy, Boll & Branch, Cake, Chief, HATCH, Herbivore, ILIA Beauty, Makeup By Mario, RŌZ, Sakara Life, Vacation, Violette_FR and Wonderbelly to name a few.
About Unilever Ventures
Unilever Ventures, the venture and growth capital arm of Unilever, empowers a new breed of forward-thinking entrepreneurs with ground-breaking ideas and ambitions to transform the world.
Our mission extends beyond mere capital provision; we enable these visionaries to cultivate distinctive brands and innovative technology solutions that resonate on a global scale. Unilever Ventures brings unrivaled expertise and leadership in the consumer goods industry, from the factory to the end user.
Our investment focuses on early-stage opportunities that lie at the fascinating crossroads of consumer goods, commerce, and technology, primarily in North America, Europe, and Asia.
