Hello Klean has secured €1.7M to advance its work in water-focused personal care and strengthen its presence in key markets.
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London-based Hello Klean, a water-first beauty brand, has secured £1.5M (nearly €1.7M) in debt financing from re:cap to support the next phase of its growth.
re:cap, founded in Berlin in 2021 by Paul Becker and Jonas Tebbe, is a platform that supplies debt capital and automated financial tools to companies in Germany, the Netherlands, and the UK. The platform allows businesses to manage liquidity, build forecasts, and address financing needs through access to real-time data. re:cap has backing from Entrée Capital, Felix Capital, Project A, and Mubadala Capital.
Paul Becker, CEO and co-founder at re:cap, says, “Hello Klean has achieved what few consumer brands manage to do. They scaled to over a million units sold while staying profitable and retaining full ownership. Their strong fundamentals made it possible to explore different growth scenarios on our platform and shape a funding plan that aligns strategy with capital. We are excited to support them as they expand globally.”
Solving hard-water beauty issues
Hello Klean began as a self-funded project supported by £75,000 in personal savings. The aim was to address a problem that often goes unnoticed: the presence of impurities in shower water that influence hair and skin.
The founders identified a gap between large water-softening systems and filters that offered limited results. Their response was a product line built through design thinking and laboratory testing, created to integrate into common bathroom setups. The idea moved beyond its early stage and developed into a global operation with more than one million units sold.
From its base in the UK, Hello Klean works at the intersection of water quality, hair care, and skin care. Since 2019, the company has produced shower filters along with hair and body products grounded in scientific research. These products target the impact of hard water, chlorine, and heavy metals, helping users manage issues linked to water quality.
The venture was initiated by Karlee Ozener and later expanded with support from co-founder and CEO Omer Ozener. Together, they built a company that focuses on proprietary filtration systems, formulation research, and community engagement.
A significant part of the company’s progress comes from its business model. Hello Klean operates without outside equity investment, relying instead on a subscription-led revenue structure. Subscriptions generate more than 70 per cent of its income, with monthly retention above 97 per cent. This flow of revenue supports inventory planning, removes the need for equity dilution, and gives the founders full control as the company grows.
Hello Klean now reaches consumers through retail partners across multiple regions, including Selfridges, Cult Beauty, Sephora UK, Harvey Nichols, and Ounass in the GCC.
Capital utilisation
With this deal, Hello Klean remains founder-owned and reports a profitable operating model. The funding will be used to increase working capital, meet demand in existing markets, expand into the Middle East and new European regions, and advance work on its filtration technology.
Omer Ozener, co-founder and CEO of Hello Klean, says, “We built Hello Klean to over 1 million sold products without taking on venture capital because our unit economics allowed it. This partnership with re:cap gives us leverage to scale inventory and international operations while maintaining ownership. Most consumer brands burn cash to grow, we grew profitably first, then added fuel.”
Growth through lean operations
Hello Klean expanded through a lean structure in which the founders handled product development, marketing, and operations. The company hired its first full-time employee in 2024 and continued to grow through sustained demand.
A feature on BBC Dragons’ Den brought the brand to a wider audience and triggered a 700 per cent rise in orders. The team now includes 20 people, with plans to reach 30 as the company builds new products and widens its global reach.
