Function of Beauty, the YC-backed company that creates personalized shampoo and conditioner based on #hairgoals, has today announced the close of a new $9.5 million Series A funding round led by GGV Capital. Y Combinator followed on in the round.
Function of Beauty launched back in December of 2015 with a simple mission: create hair products that are built exclusively for a single person’s hair.
Most shampoos and conditioners are made with the same basic ingredients, with very little alterations to account for “smooth and shiny” or “extra volume.” Despite marketing certain products as specifically designed to solve various hair problems and achieve hair goals, most hair products are pretty much the same.
That’s where Function of Beauty comes in. The company uses a quiz to learn about users’ hair and what those users want their hair to look like, feel like, smell like, etc. The results of that quiz are then pumped into an algorithm that works out which ingredients, and how much of those ingredients, should be used in shampoo and conditioner for each individual user.
In total, Function of Beauty’s algorithm offers up to 12 billion custom combinations.
Over the past year, FoB has been refining the brand — the focus is ‘celebrate individuality’ — and buffing the algorithm to get even more fine-tuned custom combinations.
The company will use the new cash to continue refining the brand and product, as well as plan for international expansion and opening a flagship store in NYC.
Founder Zahir Dossa told TechCrunch that the company’s pop-up shop in NYC was successful in growing brand awareness. On the heels of that, Function of Beauty is looking to show consumers just how the system works, letting them take the hair quiz and watch the machinery fill the order right before their eyes.
The company is also reacting to user feedback, making tweaks like offering subscription purchases instead of manually re-ordering when supplies are low.
This brings Function of Beauty’s total funding amount to $12 million.