Omer Mustafa is a 23-year-old from London with big entrepreneurial ambitions. He is the founder of Hinlura, a skincare brand he founded after he was left with acne marks.

He founded the business in October 2024 after dabbling in entrepreneurship since university, firstly selling on Amazon and then establishing a jewellery brand. He took lessons from those business ventures into Hinlura which he now wants to grow globally and get on the radar of industry giants such as Unilever.

Talking about his entrepreneurial spirit, Omer says: “It’s a lifelong ambition of mine to be an entrepreneur. I currently have an equity stake in an AI business but I want, by the end of 2026, to be working full time on scaling Hinlura. I have learnt so much from my previous businesses about the need for understanding your customer and this is why I focused on skincare, because of my own experience with acne.”

Hinlura was initially funded by Omer with savings, but when he ran out of funds he found Start Up Loans via research on YouTube. £13,000 of Start Up Loan financing secured with support from Virgin StartUp helped him to build up his inventory, start marketing including videos with influencers, trademark the logo and branding and conduct market testing. That initial Start Up Loan was followed a few months later by a £5,000 second loan.

Omer is ambitious for his brand having turned down an equity stake from a family friend in order to control 100% of the venture.

Omer said: “I want Hinlura to scale. I’ve used my skills as an AI engineer to methodically test demand on Facebook. I have been looking at the methods used by some of the big brands in the industry to scale rapidly and I’m confident that as I move into working on Hunlura full time I can follow in the footsteps of brands like Dr Squatch which achieved a £1.3bn exit.”

He added: “I know my customer and have established there is demand for the product. I’m now very much looking to sell directly to consumers as well as to the big retailers such as Boots. The product’s design reflects the pride I have in it, with the visual identity being really important. This is part of what makes Hinlura unique and why I have been keen to use Start Up Loans funding to secure trademarks.”

With there being a gap in the market for a product that is safe for pregnant women to use, Omer is looking to develop a product for this demographic and expand his range.

With the help of Start Up Loans Omer has gone from dabbling in business alongside his university studies to having thousands of orders and a clear path to scaling his business.

Chloe Fenn, Start Up Lead at Virgin StartUp, comments: “Founders like Omer are a good example of how Gen Z entrepreneurs are leveraging AI to their advantage and rapidly scaling their ideas into fully-fledged, profitable businesses in a short space of time. Omer’s passion for what he does is infectious and it’s been a real pleasure to have played a role in kick-starting his entrepreneurial journey. This business is definitely one to watch.”