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RedHawk Ventures adds Mad Rabbit Tattoo to their growing portfolio

Hand holding Mad Rabbit balm

RedHawk Ventures (RV) announced their latest investment – a tattoo after-care company founded by two 2019 finance grads. The seed round investment was confirmed after significant due diligence by the organization’s leadership.

RedHawk Venture’s co-Managing Director Abby Bartlett explained the decision, "RedHawk Ventures is excited to participate in Mad Rabbit Tattoo's seed round. Earlier this year, RV's deal flow team identified Oliver and Selom as two high-potential alumni leading a high-growth e-commerce startup, and our investment committee confidently believes Mad Rabbit will benefit from connecting with the Miami entrepreneurial ecosystem. As their company continues to grow, we look forward to their continued success and are excited to begin working with them as a portfolio company!" 

Oliver Zak and Selom Agbitor are 2019 finance graduates who started what would become Mad Rabbit Tattoo while they were still at Miami University, mixing batches of their first balm in their Oxford apartment. The company produces natural solutions to help improve the healing process after someone gets a new tattoo.

Since graduation they have continued to grow the company, with revenues topping $2.8 million in 2020 and on track for eight figures this year. They have also added products to the line and taken Shark Tank’s Mark Cuban in as a perennial investor.  

Zak remarked, “As alumni of the Farmer School of Business, Selom and I are proud that current students believe in what we're building at Mad Rabbit. Keeping a pulse on the young and highly motivated is a pillar of sustainable relevancy for any brand. We are excited to work with the highly motivated partners of RedHawk Ventures and hope to provide meaningful experience to early careers.”

Established in 1997 with financial support from Procter & Gamble, RedHawk Ventures, the John W. Altman Institute for Entrepreneurship’s $500,000 seed stage student-led venture capital fund, was one of the first university-based, student-led venture funds in the U.S. Today, RedHawk Ventures stands as one of the few venture capital funds in the nation that is entirely run by undergraduate students and provides these students with the opportunity to invest in Miami University student or alumni-led startups, exposing them to the complexities of venture capital investing.

“A distinguishing feature of our undergraduate entrepreneurship program is our emphasis on practice-based, immersive learning across all of our curricular and co-curricular programs. RedHawk Ventures is an interdisciplinary program with student-investors from majors across campus who make real investment decisions about real companies with real capital and real consequences. I don’t think there’s a better way for our students to learn about venture capital and seed stage investing than to do venture investing,” noted Tim Holcomb, Chair of the Department of Entrepreneurship and Director of the John W. Altman Institute for Entrepreneurship at the Farmer School of Business.

Fund members come from diverse backgrounds and majors but all share one common goal: maximize the value of every startup that enters the investment pipeline while empowering a fluid entrepreneurial ecosystem at Miami University. Through capital investments, consulting projects and hands-on collaboration with founders, the RedHawk Ventures team works to achieve these goals.