Adwoa Beauty Enters Chapter 7 Liquidation After Financial Struggles

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5.3.2026

Quick Facts

Texas court ruled Adwoa Beauty must enter Chapter 7 liquidation after failing to repay $375,000 debt to Aurous Financial
The brand raised $4 million in 2022 and reached $1 million in sales by 2018 before financial troubles began
Liquidation follows string of closures among Black-owned beauty brands as funding for Black founders fell 71% in 2023

A Texas court ruled that Adwoa Beauty must enter Chapter 7 liquidation, closing the books on the Black-owned hair-care brand that once sold at Sephora.

The court converted Adwoa’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing to Chapter 7 after the brand failed to repay its debt to lender Aurous Financial Services. Jeff Sirchio, director of operations at Aurous, said his company was owed $375,000 and had not seen evidence of a viable turnaround plan.

Founder Julian Addo originally owed about $280,000 to Aurous before bankruptcy. The lender later submitted a claim for $363,000, including interest accruing at $900 per day and attorney fees. Since the Chapter 11 filing, the estate paid $212,000 to Aurous and $19,245 to Versant Funding.

Funding Challenges Mount

Addo launched Adwoa Beauty in 2017 with $80,000 from personal savings. The brand reached $1 million in sales by 2018 and entered Sephora in 2020. In 2022, Adwoa raised $4 million in funding with Pendulum Holdings among its investors.

The brand struggled to maintain the infrastructure and marketing required to scale its Sephora business. Addo acknowledged management missteps in an interview with Beauty Independent, saying she made “every issue you can think of, buying too much inventory, cash management, not having the right team early on to scale the business.”

Industry-Wide Struggles

Adwoa’s liquidation follows closures of other Black-owned beauty brands including Ami Colé, Good Light, The Established and Mora Cosmetics. Funding for Black-founded startups in the U.S. fell from $4.9 billion in 2021 to $700 million in 2024, according to Crunchbase data.

McKinsey research shows that among 213 venture-capital-backed U.S. beauty brands, just 9% of early-stage and only 4% of late-stage investments went to Black brands. Good Light founder David Yi estimated it takes $10 million in funding to run a beauty business at scale.

A Chapter 7 trustee will be appointed to administer Adwoa’s remaining assets. The brand’s products were sold through Sephora, Amazon, Cult Beauty and other retailers, with core products priced from $24 to $35.