When Christina Funke Tegbe boarded a flight to Nigeria in 2015, she carried one empty suitcase. She had just quit her corporate consulting job in Houston, cashed out her 401(k), and set off to meet the grandmother she’d never met in the country she’d never seen. The suitcase was for ingredients, and the stories behind them would become the heart of her brand.
A decade later, that same origin story is how Funke Tegbe wins over new beauty shoppers in the Amazon store. Her Houston-based brand, 54 Thrones, sells African botanical body care made from shea butter, argan oil, and African black soap sourced through fair partnerships with African cooperatives. Telling that sourcing story is her value proposition, and Amazon’s A+ Content tool, which enriches product pages with photos, videos, and brand storytelling, lets her put it in front of shoppers who are discovering the brand for the first time.
“If you’re a new brand to Amazon and people don’t know who you are, being able to showcase who you are and really speak specifically to your brand and how your brand is differentiated through A+ Content is really a game changer,” she explained.
Christina Funke Tegbe launched 54 Thrones in 2016 after a trip throughout Africa.
That story began with a year of travel. She spent roughly a year traveling across Africa, meeting entrepreneurs creating beauty products from shea butter and argan oil, and learning beauty rituals and the cultures behind them. She collected ingredients at each stop.
“I was asking questions to the people in these different countries that I had met, like how to mix things and what goes with what,” Funke Tegbe recalled.
She returned to Houston with a vision to build a brand alongside the artisans and cooperatives she met in Africa. In 2016, 54 Thrones, named after Africa’s 54 countries where she sources her ingredients, was born.
She creates her products in the US and designs her packaging to honor and romanticize African beauty rituals rather than “treat Africa as a charity case.”
“I want to really show and honor these men and women who craft these things because they’re professionals,” said Funke Tegbe. “They’re the only people on Earth who know these ingredients more than anyone else.”
From Houston kitchen to Sephora shelves
54 Thrones sources its ingredients from cooperatives in 54 African countries and manufacturers its products in the US.
When she launched the business, she hand mixed and labeled products in her Houston kitchen. She sold them through social media channels and to friends and family. Then in 2020, when many consumers were seeking Black-owned businesses, Funke Tegbe entered major brick-and-mortar retailers. The business’ visibility also increased when 54 Thrones won awards from major beauty publications and appeared on Shark Tank in 2021.
In late 2024, she launched her brand in the Amazon store after customers asked why they weren’t in Amazon.
“Over the years, we saw how our customers buy everything else on Amazon, so why not their beauty?” Funke Tegbe said.
Connecting with shoppers is important for beauty brands selling online since consumers can’t smell or touch the products. Funke Tegbe uses Amazon Vine every time she launches a new product. The program invites the most trusted reviewers in the Amazon store to post opinions about new products, helping to build brand awareness.
“You’re going to get honest reviews, both good and bad,” Funke Tegbe explained. “And this can actually help you figure out if there’s an issue with your product or the packaging or how you’re speaking to an ingredient. We really value the Vine program, and I don’t launch a product without it.”
Amazon Ads, which sellers use to connect with the audiences in the Amazon store and other channels, has driven strong results for 54 Thrones. Amazon now drives 15 percent of 54 Thrones’ overall sales. By August 2026, the brand had already passed its full prior-year Amazon total and is on track to double it.
Funke Tegbe designs her product packaging to honor African beauty rituals.
Trade, not aid
Since launching 54 Thrones, Funke Tegbe has partnered with small businesses in Africa.
“Africa doesn’t need our help; it needs honest stakeholders who do business fairly,” she said. “Whenever we partner with the cooperatives and the people that are already producing our ingredients, we want to do it in a very meaningful, intentional way.”
For example, 54 Thrones helped build a water tank that enables partners to process shea butter faster and at greater capacity. She has also worked to connect cooperative partners to her US manufacturing facility, opening larger orders and a new brand relationship for them.
Measuring success by depth, not scale
Funke Tegbe said the business will continue to launch personal, story-driven products like the “Love in Lagos” fragrance, which was inspired by the first African city she visited. The product sold out on the first day. She’s also launching the Out of Office Social Wellness Club next year with the motto, “wellness doesn’t have to be beige.” It will be a community gathering space in Houston’s Third Ward neighborhood and focus on Black and brown community members.
Funke Tegbe is not looking to be a big beauty brand. She now measures success by depth of impact and community, not profits and losses.
“At the heart of it is how we make people feel,” she said. “Expansion isn’t always being on every continent. It’s more about going deeper with the people that love us and need us.”