15-03-2025
Reading entrepreneur ranked third richest beauty founder in southeast
A Reading entrepreneur has been named one of the richest beauty founders in the southeast.
According to the Sunday Times Beauty Rich List 2025, Ama Amo-Agyei has made it into the top 30 richest hair, beauty, and makeup entrepreneurs in the UK.
The Ghana-born entrepreneur, who lives in Reading, established her natural haircare business, Plantmade, with just £100 after being made redundant at the start of the pandemic.
She is now worth an estimated £10 million.
Having experienced hair loss herself, Ms Amo-Agyei began her venture by researching and creating natural remedies.
Her success story is one among many on the list, which celebrates individuals who have built their wealth from a variety of beauty products and services.
The southeast region's richest beauty founder is Vishal Karia, who set up his wholesaler business, Affinity Fragrances, in 2016.
His company has become a key player in the beauty industry, supplying scents, skincare, and cosmetics to high street chains, supermarkets, and online retailers.
His wealth is estimated at £114 million.
Second on the southeast list is Daisy Kalnina, who is worth an estimated £70 million.
She founded her company, The Gel Bottle, in 2017 from her spare room in Brighton.
It has since become the UK's fastest-growing nail polish brand and an official supplier to London Fashion Week.
With a combined wealth of £2.174 billion, the 30 entrepreneurs on the Beauty Rich List, who range in age from 27 to 84, have all made significant contributions to the beauty industry.
Robert Watts, the list's compiler, said: "There are so many inspiring people with rags to riches stories here.
"Our beauty list includes someone who came to the UK as a child refugee, another who was homeless and camping in woodland during his teens.
"There are others who left school with few or no qualifications to their name, one who was expelled.
"We have entries who suffered hair loss and very serious skin conditions that led them to create their own treatments which they later started to sell."
He added: "All these people went on to build successful beauty brands making products people love, creating jobs, contributing decent sums to the public finances and of course making many of us look and feel a lot better along the way."
Phoebe McDowell, beauty and interiors director of the Sunday Times, said: "Beauty is big business, and this inaugural list demonstrates the power of creativity and innovation in the sector.
"These entrepreneurs have not only built brands but changed the way we think about hair, makeup, and skincare."
