Shine is a venture capital firm that partners with relentless, creative, convincing entrepreneurs from the earliest stages of company building.

Shine Capital

Lerer Hippeau is a seed-stage venture capital firm founded and operated in New York City. Since 2010, they have invested in entrepreneurs with great ideas who aren’t afraid to do hard things. Their portfolio includes more than 400 enterprise and consumer businesses including Guideline, MIRROR, Blockdaemon, K Health, Allbirds, ZenBusiness, and Thrive. They’re experienced operators who invest early and stay in their founders’ corners as they build iconic companies.

Lerer Hippeau

Red Sea Ventures invests in early-stage technology-enabled companies that are building product offerings that have the potential to transform industries and consumer experiences for the better. They help and build companies with passionate founders creating solutions to big problems.

Red Sea Ventures

Founded by Natalie Massenet and Nick Brown, Imaginary Ventures is venture capital firm that invests in early–stage opportunities at the intersection of retail and technology in Europe and the US. The firm seeks to make investments in companies with a focus on the e-commerce space, including retail, fashion, lifestyle and beauty sectors in Europe. Imaginary Ventures is based in New York, New York. Investments include Farfetch, Reformation, Everlane, Necessaire, Daily Harvest, Glossier, Good American, Universal Standard and others.

Imaginary Ventures

10Beauty

10Beauty, located in Burlington, MA, is building the definitive Intelligent Beauty company, leveraging robotics and automation to reimagine how people can interact with machines on a service level. We have built the world’s first full manicure machine next year, having already pre-sold over $13M in annual manicure pod subscriptions to our first launch partners. Our diverse 30-person and growing team is built around individuals with a consistently demonstrated track record of introducing successful new-to-the-world products (75+ new products launched across the team).

Burlington-based 10Beauty offers an automated manicure machine for the beauty industry.

The intersection of beauty and technology to deliver hyper-personalized products.

Beauty Tech

Burlington beauty startup 10Beauty has a manicure robot - Bizwomen

Burlington-based 10Beauty offers an automated manicure machine for the beauty industry.The device leverages AI-driven computer vision to build a 3D reconstruction of a customer’s nails and performs a full five-step manicure (nail polish removal, cuticle management, shaping and filing, nail polish application, and drying) through robotics and IoT. The level of human intervention required is limited to inserting a manicure pod (containing all the materials required, including a sponge pre-filled with nail polish remover and brushes pre-loaded with the brand’s own non-toxic nail polish) into the machine and customizing the manicure through a mobile app.Key customers and partnerships10Beauty has partnered with hotel chains and several large retailers including Nordstrom and Ulta Beauty as well as high-end hair salons (February 2024).Funding and financialsIn February 2024, 10Beauty raised USD 38 million in equity financing, including a USD 17 million extension to Series A funding led by Shine Capital. The funds were to be used to expand its talent pool, improve manufacturing capabilities, and expand market reach.As of February 2024, 10Beauty had pre-sold 1,000 units across as many locations, representing ~USD 13 million in annual manicure pod subscription revenue. The company had plans to launch its machine in the second half of 2024 and expected to enable businesses to make over USD 10,000 annually on every machine. The company expected its partnerships to have the potential to represent up to USD 50 million in revenue and presence at ~3,000 locations.

Ipsy provides a subscription-based personalized bundle of beauty products. It uses an online quiz to obtain customer attributes such as skin tone, hair color, and preferred brands and uses its proprietary machine learning technology named “IPSY MATCH” to match products from selected brands with customers.Ipsy provides three customized subscription-based product bundle options: 1) Glam Bag (five deluxe-sized samples for USD 14 per month); 2) BoxyCharm (five full-sized products for USD 30 per month); and 3)Icon Box (eight full-sized products for USD 60 per quarter). Ipsy also enables customers to pick three products out of 12 recommendations, allowing the company to gain insights on customer preferences which are in turn used to improve its recommendation engine.Ipsy ships to the US, Canada, and Mexico with over 3 million active members as of November 2020. As of October 2023, Ipsy had over 3.6 million followers on TikTok and was claimed to be the most followed beauty brand on the platform.In November 2020, Ipsy acquired the subscription-based beauty product provider BoxyCharm in a USD 500 million deal, and, in March 2023, merged the two brands under Ipsy’s brand portfolio.Key customers and partnershipsIpsy’s platform features various makeup brands from over 330 retailers (November 2023).Ipsy creates curated makeup boxes in partnership with celebrities and popular makeup artists such as the founder of the cosmetic brand Anastasia Beverly Hills, Anastasia Soare (March 2023), the American actress and singer, Vanessa Hudgens (July 2023), the british makeup artist, Pat McGrath (October 2023), and the American singer and songwriter, Gwen Stefani (February 2024).Key Competitors : None comparable (Ipsy is the only company in the hub that offers customized subscription boxes for an assortment of various types of beauty products.)

Ipsy

Proven Skincare develops personalized products based on a custom formula that incorporates 45 factors about the user including environment, lifestyle, and skin concerns. Based on the identified skin genome profile, three multifunctional products are developed, i.e. a multifunctional cleanser/toner, a moisturizer, and a night cream/serum. Proven Skincare products can be purchased as a one-off or on a subscription.Proven claims that its proprietary “Skin Genomic Database” consists of over 20 million customer testimonials, 8 million online reviews, and data from over 4,000 scientific papers analyzed with machine learning and natural-language processing to identify the most suitable clean ingredients for each customer.The company also introduced a <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/10097?industryIds=39">personalized eye cream </a>duo for day and night use in May 2022. Proven's skincare personalization process received a US <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/11478?industryIds=39">patent </a>in July 2022. It introduced a <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/24527">personalized Serum </a>in November 2023 which leverages AI to determine the optimal skincare ingredients for each user.Proven Skincare <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/11716?industryIds=39">expanded </a>into the European Union (EU) and the UK in July 2022.Key customers and partnershipsThe company announced a partnership with Sephora in January 2023 to bring its personalized skincare solutions to <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/16034">Sephora’s </a>digital and brick-and-mortar stores.As of September 2021, Proven Skincare had <a href="https://www.retaildive.com/news/how-high-is-the-ceiling-for-personalized-beauty-brands/606802/">over 100,000 customer </a>s, ~70% of which were repeat shoppers.Funding and financialsFrom its launch in October 2019, the company had reportedly reached a USD 24 million average annual revenue within two years of operation in the North American market, with 80% of customers on a subscription-based sales model.In September 2023, the company raised <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/22322">USD 12.2 million </a>in series A funding led by NewH2 Ventures to enhance its brand presence and expand its team.

Proven Skincare

Function of Beauty is a developer of custom hair care, skincare, and body care products. The company initially focused on hair care and subsequently expanded its focus to skin and body care products in July 2020. Function of Beauty formulates custom products based on an online quiz using an algorithm capable of offering 12 billion custom combinations developed by the company’s founders—a group of MIT engineers and data scientists including Zahir Dossa and Joshua Maciejewski.The company’s products are vegan, cruelty-free, sulphate-free, gluten-free, and paraben-free. Its hair care products have a patented Adaptive f3 Bonding Complex. Function of Beauty’s customized products include shampoo and conditioner (starting at USD 20 as of January 2024), body wash and body lotion (starting at USD 21 as of January 2024) and moisturizer (starting at USD 45 as of January 2024).Function of Beauty carries out product designing, development, manufacturing, and packaging in-house with occasional consultant feedback. Function of Beauty uses automated processes, including a robotic system for order dispensing. The system can use 20–50 ingredients per bottle. As of January 2024, the company shipped to over 48 countries including the US, the UK, Canada, EU countries, and several Asian countries.In August 2021, Function of Beauty acquired Atolla, a custom skincare product developer to combine its proprietary formulations with Atolla's patented skincare technology to offer advanced custom skincare products.Key customers and partnershipsIn September 2022, the company partnered with Canadian retailer <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/13191?industryIds=39">Shoppers Drug Mart </a>to launch its personalized hair care products in Canada. In August 2023, Function of Beauty launched a new Function of Beauty <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/21500">PRO hair care range </a>in 300 Sephora locations across North America and online. It also has a wholesale partnership with Amazon (<a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/30313">June 2024</a>) to offer hair care products through Amazon’s e-commerce platform.

Function of Beauty

Hawthorne is a developer of custom fragrance, body care/grooming, hair care, and skincare products for men. The company launched with fragrances, introduced body care products in 2018, hair care products in 2019, and in January 2020 introduced custom skincare products. An online quiz collects information such as daily routine, lifestyle, taste, and familiarity with grooming products. That information is then analyzed using a proprietary data processing algorithm.Hawthorne claims that the algorithm can match customers with a product that suits their body chemistry, skin type, hair type, and lifestyle with a 97% accuracy. As of January 2024, the company’s personalized fragrances were priced at USD 50–60 and skin and hair care products were priced at USD 17–21. The company ships to the US, Hawaii, and Alaska.Key customers and partnershipsHawthorne’s perfumes are developed in collaboration with award-winning perfumers such as Rodrigo Flores-Roux, Olivier Gillotin, and Quentin Bisch.

Hawthorne

Prose develops custom hair care products and hair care routines based on responses to an online quiz. The quiz obtains customer information about hair type, current hair care habits, diet, stress level, physical activity and factors such as ultraviolet (UV) exposure, pollution, humidity, wind, and other <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/9356?industryIds=39">micro-local factors </a>. The quiz also takes customer’s preferences such as vegan or gluten-free requirements into consideration. The information is processed through Prose’s proprietary algorithm to create individualized products. Prose uses a semi-automated approach to manufacturing where the production is carried out by a chemist with the aid of automated mixing and packaging.In April 2021, the company introduced “Root Source,” a hair supplement to treat environmental causes of hair loss. The product consists of two pills, a universal soft gel and a customized capsule, and, as of January 2024, was priced at USD 57.2. The product was developed based on insights derived from information collected through Prose’s online quiz, which revealed that around 85% of the brand’s customers experience hair loss. Root Source’s clinical trials claim around 93% of users experiencing improved hair growth after taking the supplement for 90 days. Prose also introduced a <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/12245?industryIds=39">personalized styling gel </a>specifically targeting curly hair in August 2022.In June 2023, Prose expanded into <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/19873">skincare </a>with an AI-powered system offering customized formulas based on individual needs, targeting multiple skin concerns, and addressing factors such as skin type, diet, stress, pollution, and climate while allowing fragrance and texture customization. In <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/28430">April 2024 </a>, the company launched an AI-based beauty tech customization platform, Singular. The company claims to have completed over one million consultations in the 11 months leading up to November 2019.

Prose

Companies that leverage technologies such as AI/ML and AR/VR  to enable cosmetic producers to offer personalized product offerings to consumers. This could include virtual-try-ons for cosmetics such as makeup and hair color in addition to solutions for skin analytics.

Companies that formulate customized solutions for skin, leveraging technologies such as AI/ML to conduct skin analysis, and provide personalized recommendations, which are directly sold to consumers.

Companies that leverage biotechnology, nanotechnology, or other technologies to develop biomaterials or novel lab-grown ingredients (e.g., bio-based cosmetic polymers) for use by the broader beauty industry.

Companies that leverage technologies like IoT to develop smart devices (e.g., smart mirrors, wearables) that offer real-time analysis of skin health, skincare routines, and product usage for consumers. This also includes companies that offer 3D-printed makeup, at-home beauty tech (e.g., at-home manicure machines), and other tech-based personal care products (e.g., tech-enabled color-changing nails).

Companies that leverage technologies such as AI/ML to match consumers with third-party beauty products by offering personalized recommendations to consumers, which are curated based on each individual customer’s preferences.

Companies that formulate customized hair and other beauty solutions such as fragrances, leveraging technologies such as AI/ML to tailor product recommendations, which are directly sold to consumers.

Beauty tech features brands that leverage IoT for smart devices

Personalized beauty tech features brands that leverage AR tools for virtual cosmetic try-ons

Some companies (like Mink and Ellure) allow customers to print their own makeup

Beauty tech features brands that leverage robotics for at-home devices

AI/ML is used for Big Data analysis, allowing companies to improve prediction capabilities for personalization

Beauty tech features brands that leverage biotechnology to create sustainable materials

Beauty tech features brands that leverage blockchain for supply chain transparency

Companies offer personalized recommendations and products based on individual attributes like skin and hair

10Beauty

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