Ami Colé Raised Millions In Venture Capital And Broke Barriers — Now Diarrha N’Diaye-Mbaye Is Saying Goodbye, On Her Own Terms
After four years, Diarrha N’Diaye-Mbaye, founder of the clean beauty brand Ami Colé, announced on Instagram on Thursday (July 17) that she’s winding down the company.
What began as a mission to create makeup that truly works for melanin-rich skin, grew into much more. It became a movement and a metaphorical home for many, just like the salon her mother once built, she noted.
In the heartfelt post, N’Diaye-Mbaye called this moment “another love letter, not a goodbye.”
“We were a brand rooted in purpose, storytelling, and the bold celebration of who we are,” she wrote. “Let’s not forget bomb ass products!”
From the earliest sketches in her Brooklyn, NY, apartment to seeing Ami Colé’s products on Sephora shelves across North America, she noted, N’Diaye-Mbaye turned a vision into reality.
“This moment is bittersweet… Thank you for everything you’ve taught me about living your dreams out loud,” she wrote. She also thanked the investors who believed in her, Sephora for giving the brand a home, her dedicated team, and the community whose love and support made it all possible.
“To every Brown girl out there, don’t be afraid to fail out loud. Take it there! Dare to dream big! Learn, dust yourself off and try again. Pay it forward.”
Scaling A Dream In A Shifting Market
Ami Colé, which launched in 2021, quickly became a go-to for clean beauty lovers seeking products that worked for deeper skin tones. It earned praise from high-profile celebrities, such as Kelly Rowland and Aysha Harun, numerous awards, and a spot on “Oprah’s Favorite Things” list, per The Cut. But most importantly, it stood out in an industry where inclusivity can often feel like an afterthought.
However, behind the scenes, the journey was more complicated.
Like many Black-owned brands that gained traction after the murder of George Floyd in 2020, Ami Colé initially benefited from a wave of investor enthusiasm around diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). That enthusiasm didn’t always translate into long-term support.
“Instead of focusing on the healthy, sustainable future of the company and meeting the needs of our loyal fan base,” N’Diaye-Mbaye wrote in a candid essay for The Cut, “I rode a temperamental wave of appraising investors — some of whom seemed to have an attitude toward equity and ‘betting big on inclusivity’ that changed its tune, to my ears, from what it sounded like in 2020.”
Compounding the challenge was the pressure of being one of the few Black women to raise significant venture capital. Ami Colé raised over $3 million, according to PitchBook, backed by firms like G9 Ventures and Greycroft, along with angel investors such as Hannah Bronfman and The Cut Editor-in-Chief Lindsay Peoples Wagner, TechCrunch notes.
Ami Colé’s closure comes amid a broader decline in venture funding for Black founders, which, according to Crunchbase, has dropped to its lowest level in years at 0.4%. As political backlash against DEI initiatives grows louder, long-term investment in Black-owned businesses has become even more difficult to secure.
The Work Isn’t Over
Though Ami Colé is closing, N’Diaye-Mbaye made it clear that her journey is far from over.
“I still believe in beauty — at every level — and I’m looking forward to discovering what comes next,” she wrote in The Cut.
This chapter may be ending, but the impact Ami Colé made, creating space for underrepresented consumers and proving the value of purpose-driven brands, will live on.
