If you suppose that selecting a nail polish shade or which substances go into your face cream can’t have something to do with blockchain, suppose once more.
Kiki World, a beauty startup launched final 12 months, desires shoppers to co-create merchandise and co-own the corporate with the assistance of web3 know-how.
On Tuesday, LA-based Kiki introduced that it raised a $7 million seed spherical from the Andreessen Horowitz crypto fund and The Estée Lauder Companies’ New Incubation Ventures, together with different backers similar to Orange DAO and 2 Punks Capital.
Kiki co-founder Jana Bobosikova mentioned she believes that being a loyal person of a brand within the Web 2.0 world could be a internet damaging expertise. “You probably have watched a lot of creators on TikTok recommend it to you. You probably recommended it to all your friends. And what do you get for that? Just more retargeted ads,” she mentioned.
Kiki is flipping that mannequin by permitting its neighborhood members to vote on the options they need earlier than the beauty merchandise are made. As a reward, voters earn factors towards free merchandise and obtain digital tokens within the firm.
“It’s a dynamic that the internet and your bathroom have not seen yet,” Bobosikova mentioned. (She could also be proper in regards to the rest room, although after all, the web has seen loads of clients vote on merchandise and earn digital tokens for their participation.)
Since it’s not unusual for cosmetics corporations to search out themselves with giant piles of stock they will’t promote, one other good thing about Kiki’s on-demand strategy is that it uses much less capital and sources.
Although members’ product votes are recorded on Ethereum, Bobosikova mentioned some individuals don’t must know they’re taking motion on blockchain. Users can register with an e-mail, and voila, Kiki has created an on-chain account that will retailer the members’ votes into perpetuity.
a16z determined to again Kiki after the startup accomplished its 10-week crypto startup accelerator program. “Jana is a force of nature. She was one of the things that most drew us to the company,” mentioned Arianna Simpson, a basic associate on the agency. “She has incredible expertise in the beauty space, but also a unique understanding of web3, which is not always something we see if we have a founder coming out of a more traditional industry.”
Prior to founding Kiki, the Czech-born Bobosikova was the CEO of Epic Future Labs, a product improvement and brand improvements company.
Simpson famous that Kiki just isn’t the agency’s solely guess on a firm that rewards clients utilizing blockchain know-how. Last 12 months, a16z led a $24 million Series A of Blackbird Labs, a hospitality tech firm that developed a loyalty program that incentivizes company to dine in unbiased eating places.
For now, Kiki has launched 5 product collections, together with a nail polish pen, for which shoppers can select the following shade Kiki will manufacture.
But, as Simpson identified, Kiki has plans to finally increase past the world of beauty.
How lengthy will it’s till it’s attainable to vote on denims kinds or purse sizes? Perhaps a whereas.
“We have faced insane challenges on the physical side of things,” Bobosikova mentioned, including that some merchandise take for much longer to fabricate than others. “The power of asking people what they want and giving it to them, it’s very, very simple. It’s just very hard to do.”