Community beauty firm Kiki announced on Tuesday its initial funding round investors, including A16z crypto and The Estée Lauder Companies’ New Incubation Ventures.
Other round investors included consumer-tech funds Double Down, 2Punks Capital and Advancit, digital communities RedDao and OrangeDao, and the digital creator GMoney.
Financial terms of the investment were not disclosed.
The investment from A16z crypto follows Kiki’s participation in its spring 2023 Crypto Startup Accelerator program. NIV invested in November 2022 at Kiki’s concept stages prior to launch, according to a press release.
“Brand websites are valuable for not only selling but also educating, and Kiki’s innovative platform strategically takes brand.com capabilities a step further to leverage community and drive creativity as trends rapidly emerge,” said Jana Bobosikova, Brendon Garner, and Ricky Chan, Kiko‘s co-founders.
“Kiki sees the internet and the communities it connects as the engine that creates, not merely consumes, the brands and products that will define the next generation, and is building tools to make this elevated customer experience a reality.”
Established in 2023, Kiki is a community-focused beauty brand where products are co-created by user audiences and their feedback, using the firm’s proprietary platform and blockchain infrastructure to create a new way for consumers to connect with each other and the brand outside of the historical web2 channels and social media.
Such collaboration has led to the launch of unique product collections like Kiki’s Skin Development Kit and NFC-enabled Pretty Nail Graffiti pen, among other products.
“Consumers are at the heart of what we do at The Estée Lauder Companies,” said Shana Randhava, senior vice president, NIV, The Estée Lauder Companies.
“That’s why we’re excited by the Kiki team’s vision of finding new ways to put the customer first. Kiki brand with their custom-built platform is leveraging the forefront of web3 tech to rethink the future of how consumers can co-create with brands and engage in new and relevant ways. This exploration of a new consumer-centric model provides ELC with a valuable window into the future of beauty.”
Estée Lauder unveiled its NIV in March 2021, making an investment in grooming brand Faculty, at the time. Since then, NIV has also invested in British natural skin care and fragrance brand Haeckels, Chinese fragrance brand Melt Season, and Chinese clean beauty label Code Mint.
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