Uncover was founded amidst the global pandemic by myself Sneha – currently Uncover’s CFO and my co-founder Catherine, Uncover’s CEO. It’s hard to believe but about a year ago, we didn’t know each other, we met at Antler, an early-stage global VC in Nairobi, in a pursuit for change in our careers.
Our backgrounds couldn’t be more different. Catherine is an economist turned film-maker turned entrepreneur. Her lifelong passion to empower womankind has led her to sit with fellow females in the villages of Peru to the slums of India to the coffee farms of Kenya. She has worked on women’s empowerment projects across 20 countries. On the other hand, I was always known as the “finance girl” working in the banking industry in London and on private equity and consulting projects, scaling businesses across 10 different African markets.
Catherine, originally from South Korea – also known as the Paris of Skincare – couldn’t help but notice the glaring gap in skin-care in the region. Her friends continually asked her to bring skincare products back to Kenya after her holidays in Seoul. When Catherine presented this idea to me, we bonded immediately. I had my own, rather traumatic, experience with acne and an unfortunate visit to a dermatologist in Kenya, leaving my skin with burns and confidence at an all-time low.
But, from this experience I learnt that using nourishing, healthy ingredients are better than using harsh, quick-fix ingredients. There is so much white space in the Kenyan (and regional) skin-care market and we are bridging that gap by providing healthy, cost-effective products as well as information.
Our idea was backed by Antler to make our dream of revolutionising self-care, starting with skin-care, on the continent a reality.
At the heart of Uncover is a data-driven approach to unlock the vast potential in the African self-care market. When we started working on the idea, we launched a survey and over 1000 Kenyan women responded in a couple of weeks – what we believe could be one of the largest skincare surveys in the region. Catherine and I learnt about women’s pain-points in the skincare industry, their primary skin concerns, how much they spend, where they shop, their habits and much more.
The validation and data received from this survey and continuous engagement with consumers has helped drive decisions around Uncover: a brand made specially for the local market from the global best skincare lab facilities in Korea. Our first product, launched in December 2020, are Korean sheet masks available in “I am Cool: Aloe Vera”, “I am Brilliant: Vitamin C” and “I am Beau-tea-ful: Green Tea.” We have partnered with various leading retailers to stock our products as well as launched Uncover’s e-commerce platform which also includes curated by Uncover Korean skincare products.
Catherine and I were excited about Uncover, because other than being a skincare brand, we have a greater vision and goal… skincare is one step to getting women to feel confident and uncovering their beautiful skin, we also want to empower women to be their own identity! So, we also chose the brand name “Uncover” very specifically.
Our mission at Uncover, is to inspire, support, educate and empower women to take control of health and well-being. Skin being the biggest organ, deserves nourishment from validated, researched, healthy and natural ingredients. Uncover provides these products based on results from collected data and research and gives the necessary skin information along the way on social media platforms including a YouTube channel and the recently launched Facebook private group, Uncover Club.
We believe skin-care is all about being natural and uncovering your beautiful face. Our goal is to empower self-care for women and become the most trusted skin-care brand here in Kenya.
