Carol’s Daughter, a multimillion-dollar Brooklyn, New York-based skin and haircare line, is set for expansion. Founder Lisa Price has signed on a team of investors, including consumer marketer Steve Stoute, Will and Jada Pinkett Smith, and Jay-Z, to grow her brand. Her second boutique will open in Harlem later this year, and Pinkett Smith has become the face of the brand’s first ad campaign. Financial terms were undisclosed. Carol’s Daughter was named Emerging Company of the Year at this year’s BLACK ENTERPRISE Entrepreneurs Conference. — Latif Lewis
M.R. Beal & Co. (No. 6 on the BE INVESTMENT BANKS list with $45.3 billion in total managed issues) opened an office in Atlanta in March to take advantage of demand for municipal financing in the region. Atlanta continues to enjoy population growth and a boom in housing construction, bringing with it the need for new and improved infrastructure. The Atlanta office is just one piece of Beal’s recent expansion efforts. The firm, which has traditionally served institutional clients, is beginning to target high-net-worth individual investors. — Philana Patterson
Positioning itself to grow an additional 25% by the end of 2005, MV Transportation Inc. purchased the assets of Salinas, California-based Pro Transportation Services Inc. in May. The move will add more than $2 million in annual revenues to the paratransit and fixed-route bus service company.
Last March, MV purchased an 80% share in 50-year-old Vallejo Citizens Transit Corp., also located outside of San Francisco, in addition to landing a $10 million per year, five-year contract with the River City Transit Authority in Louisville, Kentucky.
While serving more than 140 locations across the country, MV rode away with $272 million in revenues for 2004, and it expects to finish 2005 with $335 million. — Marcia A. Wade