Amira Rasool founded The Folklore Group, a business-to-business network that connects merchants and brands from emerging markets in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, and South America. Rasool created a new B2B version of her website in 2022, launching The Folklore Connect, which allows brands to sell their products in bulk to larger stores.
Today, the platform serves a wide range of consumer businesses, including those in beauty, health, and wellness. The startup is now launching additional services to assist companies in obtaining the cash and talent they want for scaling. This follows a $3.4 million seed fundraising round headed by Benchstrength, a venture capital firm founded by former General Catalyst partners Kenneth Chenault Jr. and John Monagle.
Existing investors Slauson & Co, Techstars, and Black Tech Nation Ventures also contributed to the funding round. The business has raised a total of $6.2 million, according to Tech Crunch.
“The key to The Folklore’s ongoing user and revenue growth is to keep building items that make sense to the customers we want to reach. Rasool stated that the company will focus on meeting the needs of the majority of brands rather than trying to broaden its scope.
Folklore Capital now offers working capital loans of up to $1 million from startup partners to brands. According to Rasool, the pilot indicated that brands borrowed between $10,000 and $30,000.
Her startup also provides a labor marketplace for businesses that are unable to hire full-time employees but require skills on occasion.
Rasool founded her company after discovering apparel labels on a vacation to South Africa that she had never seen or heard about in America. After enquiring, she understood how difficult it is for these firms to import their products to the United States.
She quickly realized that the dilemma was not a “South African” problem, but an African one. According to her, many of the enterprises were unable to export their clothing outside African borders due to a lack of international shipping technology and infrastructure, as well as access to American stores.
This sparked the formation of her fashion business, The Folklore Group. The company sells men’s and women’s clothes and accessories, as well as African-made homeware companies. In July 2021 alone, she raised $1.7 million in pre-seed funding. She became one of the youngest Black women to generate more than $1 million to promote African design.
Rasool founded her company after returning to South Africa to pursue a Masters in African Studies at the University of Cape Town. She did not leave it there. She traveled to Ghana, Nigeria, and Kenya, where she developed relationships with local brands.
She started her company in 2018 with $30,000. According to her, $20,000 came from savings from her work at V Magazine and freelance writing, while $10,000 came from her father. Her initial crew consisted of one intern and her mother. Her mother shipped the wares from her home to customers. After receiving $1.7 million in pre-seed funding, she hired 12 people in a massive overhaul and created a new B2B version of her website that allows brands to sell their items in bulk to larger shops.
Rasool grew up with a passion for fashion. In high school, she launched a fashion blog. She later interned at magazines such as Marie Claire and Women’s Wear Daily while attending Rutgers University.
In her final year of college, the South Orange, New Jersey native worked as a fashion assistant at V Magazine.