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Hello Klean is a London-based beauty brand founded in 2019 by Omer and Karlee Ozener. What started with £75K in founder capital has scaled to over 1 million units sold - entirely bootstrapped and profitable. The company designs premium shower filters engineered to reduce chlorine, heavy metals, and other impurities that damage hair and skin. The filters use NSF-certified redox media to remove chlorine and heavy metals. Over 70% of revenue comes from subscriptions, with 97% monthly retention driving strong unit economics.
The independence dilemma
Hello Klean is run by two founders: Omer and Karlee Ozener. A 50-50 split with 100% ownership. There are no external investors breathing down their neck. For the London-based company, this is a strategic advantage.
"I always preferred debt over equity," Omer explains. "We didn’t want to dilute ourselves. But more importantly, we wanted to keep control and our independence as founders." However, maintaining that independence comes at a cost: working capital is tight, especially when first orders don’t pay back immediately.
"In our early years we reinvested in customer acquisition, which created working capital needs despite strong unit economics. As a subscription business with 6-month payback, we needed capital that matched our CLTV, not just our quarterly cashflow."
Short-term debt that puts a leash on growth
The team explored nearly every UK working capital and revenue-based financing option, including Wayflyer, Uncapped, Shopify Capital, PayPal Capital, Tradebridge, and Seller’s Funding.
Omer’s verdict?
- Terms are too short: Most providers maxed out at ~6 months, some at ~12 months.
- Wrong horizon for acquisition: With payback around six months and real profitability after a year, a 6-12 month structure forces caution. Omer was hesitant to invest in CAC when repayments started before cohorts turned profitable.
- No room to scale: Short paybacks were good band-aids for inventory and operating gaps, but not for sustained subscriber growth.
The problem wasn't capital access. It was the structure. Hello Klean operates a business with healthy unit economics – a strong LTV and great retention. But the first orders? They are not profitable.
Hello Klean’s business case – and why they qualify for long-term debt
Subscribers stick around – lifetime value hits £200+ over 18-24 months. Subscriptions make up 70% of revenue, with 97% monthly retention.
The catch: cohorts break even at month six but don't hit full profitability until month eight or later. Debt with 6-12 month terms forces repayment before customers become profitable – funding growth with one hand, paying it back with the other.
re:cap's up to 60-month terms align with how the business actually makes money. Hello Klean can invest in acquisition and capture the full customer lifetime without the cash crunch. High retention and subscription revenue make debt attractive. Long repayment windows make it useful.
Three funding gaps for Hello Klean
This created three funding gaps for Hello Klean:
- Working capital needs from early-stage reinvestment phase
- Inventory financing needs: the classic e-commerce trap
- Growth capital for customer acquisition that wouldn't pay back for months
The short-term debt providers could match the first two points. But they couldn't solve the third.
“When your financing needs are longer than six months, it doesn’t create room for investing in growth. And if you really want to invest in customer acquisition, you need to take on long-term debt.”
Short-term debt means short-term thinking – and short-term thinking is a threat to most companies.
Long-term, flexible debt that matches business model and growth plans
Hello Klean discovered something different. Not another RBF provider with a six-month horizon – but flexible debt that actually aligned with how they make money.
They secured a £1.5M credit line from re:cap, with payback terms extending up to 60 months. For the first time, Hello Klean had funding that matched their customer lifetime, not just their quarterly targets.
“The beauty of re:cap is this longer term. With a 2-2.5 year payback period, we can safely invest in growth activities to acquire subscribers. When we start paying back, those customers are already generating profits.”
This isn’t just longer debt: It is flexible debt that understands Hello Klean's business is healthy enough to support growth, not just survival. "Taking on debt is like a health seal. You’re healthy by default if you’re able to add this to your capital structure and can repay it," Omer says.
Long-term and flexible: £1.5M credit line
That changed the game for Hello Klean.
Due to its long payback horizon they can use the credit line to invest in growth, not only for working capital. ”That's the biggest differentiator compared to other offers in the market,” says Omer.
Why re:cap: Flexibility meets predictability
These factors sealed the decision:
- The long payback period gives Hello Klean room to invest in acquisitions without choking on too early repayments.
- The ability to draw from a flexible credit line, access higher limits, and scale funding as the business scales
- Confidence to invest: Long-term debt reduces CAC risks, so you can actually scale what already works.
- From pure working capital to hiring, international expansion, and sustained acquisition: They can use funds for expansion.
But perhaps the most valuable commodity was psychological. "It gave us more predictability," Omer says.
"With 6-month debt, we were wondering: would the cohort perform? Would we have enough cash to cover both inventory and repayment? re:cap's longer term matches our actual customer lifetime and lets us make confident decisions about hiring, inventory, and acquisition spend."
With re:cap, that anxiety disappeared. Hello Klean knows that they have a safe runway. That gives them confidence to invest these funds, and this kind of confidence is often underrated. In a bootstrapped business, it is what separates survival from scale.
How they use re:cap
Before re:cap
- Patchwork of short-term RBFs (6-12 months)
- Under-investment in acquisition due to repayment pressure
- Constant capital juggling between inventory and growth
After re:cap
- Long-term credit line aligned to subscriber payback
- Confident hiring and international expansion (Middle East and EU)
- Predictable cash planning, growth stopped being a luxury and became the plan.
"We’re hiring now, investing in acquisition, and expanding in the Middle East and into EU markets," Omer explains. This is what properly structured debt does: it doesn't just fill a gap – it opens a door.
All while maintaining that 50-50 ownership split. All while keeping strategic options open. All while building a company on their terms.
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