# Deborah Benton

> Deborah Benton is a seed investor at Willow Growth Partners backing E-Commerce and Fashion. See 15 investments, check sizes, portfolio. Updated Aug 2026.

- Type: Angel Investor
- Fund: [Willow Growth Partners](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/willow-growth-partners)
- Location: Los Angeles, United States
- Total investments: 15
- Last investment: Nov 2025
- Lead investor: 40%
- Last updated: Aug 2026
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/debenton
- X (Twitter): https://twitter.com/deborahabenton
- Website: http://kaktuscapital.com/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/deborahbenton

Deborah Benton is a seed investor at Willow Growth Partners in Los Angeles focused on E-Commerce and Fashion. Deborah Benton was the President & COO of Nasty Gal. Previous to NastyGal, Benton was the COO of ShoeDazzle. Prior to ShoeDazzle, Benton was the EVP Inside Sales and Operations of Teleflora.

## Round sizes

| Stage | Round size |
| --- | --- |
| Seed | $400k–$5M |
| Series A | $6M–$27M |

## Investment focus

### Industry

| Industry | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| E-Commerce | 8 | 53% |
| Fashion | 4 | 27% |
| Retail | 3 | 20% |
| Cosmetics | 3 | 20% |
| Beauty | 2 | 13% |

33 industries tracked in total.

### Stage

| Stage | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Seed | 10 | 67% |
| Series A | 3 | 20% |
| Debt Financing | 1 | 7% |

## Investments

| Company | Description | Amount | Stage | Date | Website |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Perelel | Perelel is a supplement manufacturer designed for various stages of a woman's reproductive life cycle. | $27M | Series A | Nov 20, 2025 |  |
| KilgourMD | KilgourMD develops hair and scalp care products for reducing shedding and supporting scalp health. They formulate topical serums and treatment solutions. Their products address hair loss prevention and scalp maintenance. | $5M | Seed | Oct 15, 2025 |  |
| Other Half | Other Half focuses on producing clean-label, human-grade supplements for dogs, emphasising transparency, clinical validation, and ingredient quality. | $3M | Seed | Jun 17, 2025 |  |
| Perelel | Perelel is a supplement manufacturer designed for various stages of a woman's reproductive life cycle. | $6M | Series A | Feb 01, 2024 |  |
| Youthforia | Youth Foria is a cosmetics manufacturer and online retailer. manufacturing of personal care products. They make makeup that's for their skin, so you can sleep in it. They are biobased ingredients based on green chemistry principles. For inquiries, telephone and email are used. | $400K | Seed | Mar 06, 2023 |  |
| Dae Hair | Dae Hair is an e-commerce company that provides cosmetics, beauty, skincare products, and accessories. The company's hair care assortment includes shampoos and conditioners, along with multitasking styling and treatment products. Its clean haircare line is infused with nourishing, desert-derived botanicals and dreamlike scents. Furthermore,the brand's desert-inspired positioning is beautiful and distinct, and the products' clean ingredients and exquisite scents provide the consumer with a true self-care experience. | $8M | Series A | Dec 07, 2022 |  |
| De Soi | De Soi is a range of non-alcoholic apéritifs made with natural adaptogens founded by Katy Perry and Morgan McLachlan. The company is headquartered in Los Angeles, California, United States. | $4M | Seed | Jul 28, 2022 |  |
| Dae Hair | Dae Hair is an e-commerce company that provides cosmetics, beauty, skincare products, and accessories. The company's hair care assortment includes shampoos and conditioners, along with multitasking styling and treatment products. Its clean haircare line is infused with nourishing, desert-derived botanicals and dreamlike scents. Furthermore,the brand's desert-inspired positioning is beautiful and distinct, and the products' clean ingredients and exquisite scents provide the consumer with a true self-care experience. | $2.6M | Seed | Jun 30, 2021 |  |
| Skylar | Skylar designs an online retail platform that offers clean, consciously crafted fragrances that inspire happiness while empowering and supporting women. The company's platform sells hypoallergenic perfumes that are made from natural ingredients with unique smell, enabling consumers to avail a fresh alternative to conventional fragrances. | $3M | Seed | Jan 22, 2018 |  |
| Tapcart | Tapcart is a mobile commerce SaaS platform that integrates directly with Shopify, enabling brands to build native mobile apps for their eCommerce stores. Its platform is used by thousands of Shopify brands including Fashion Nova, Chubbies, Urban Planet. The company was founded in 2017 and is headquartered in Santa Monica, California. | $850K | Seed | Dec 01, 2017 |  |

10 of 15 investments shown.

## Co-investors
- [Unilever Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/unilever-ventures) — VC Fund, 5 deals together
- [Amplify.LA](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/amplify-la) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [Selva Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/selva-ventures) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [TA Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/ta-venture) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [Able Partners](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/able-partners) — VC Fund, 1 deal together
- [Act One Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/act-one-ventures) — VC Fund, 1 deal together

## About Willow Growth Partners

VC Fund · Los Angeles, United States

Willow provides early growth capital to entrepreneurs building the next generation of transformative consumer brands. The firm is headquartered in Los Angeles, California, United States.

2 contacts available at Willow Growth Partners.

| Name | Title | Profile |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Amanda Schutzbank | Co-Founder & General Partner | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/amanda-bensol |
| Deborah Benton | Founder and General Partner | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/deborah-benton |

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## Featured in investor lists
- [Fashion Angel Investors](https://shizune.co/investors/fashion-angel-investors)

## FAQ

### What does Deborah Benton invest in?

Deborah Benton invests primarily in E-Commerce, Fashion and Retail startups, most often at Seed and Series A stage. Most of the 15 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in United States. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.

### What is Deborah Benton's check size?

Deborah Benton typically joins rounds of $400k–$5M at Seed and $6M–$27M at Series A. These ranges are 10th–90th percentile round sizes calculated from confirmed public funding rounds, so they are a realistic guide to the rounds Deborah Benton participates in.

### When did Deborah Benton last invest?

The most recent investment recorded for Deborah Benton closed in Nov 2025. Shizune tracks 15 investments in total for this profile, including round sizes, stages and portfolio companies, all sourced from confirmed public funding rounds and refreshed monthly.

### Is Shizune's investor data accurate?

Yes — every stat on this profile is calculated from confirmed public funding rounds monitored across hundreds of sources since 2020. This profile was last refreshed in Aug 2026 and is updated monthly. Spotted something off? Use the “Suggest an edit” link near the top of the page.

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