Kiki World, a magnificence model that makes use of web3 for buyer co-creation and possession, raises $7M from a16z

Should you suppose that selecting a nail polish colour or which elements go into your face cream can not have something to do with blockchain, suppose once more.

Kiki World, a magnificence startup launched final yr, needs customers 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 Firms’ New Incubation Ventures, together with different backers equivalent to OrangeDao and 2Punks Capital.  

Kiki co-founder Jana Bobosikova mentioned she believes that being a loyal consumer of a model within the Internet 2.0 world might be a internet destructive expertise. “You most likely have watched a variety of creators on TikTok suggest it to you. You most likely really helpful it to all your folks. And what do you get for that? Simply extra retargeted advertisements,” she mentioned.

Kiki is flipping that mannequin by permitting its group members to vote on the options they need earlier than the sweetness 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 web and your toilet haven’t seen but,” Bobosikova mentioned.

And because it’s not unusual for cosmetics corporations to search out themselves with massive piles of stock they can not promote, one other advantage of Kiki’s on-demand method is that it makes use of much less capital and assets.

Though members’ product votes are recorded on Ethereum, Bobosikova mentioned some members don’t have to know they’re taking motion on blockchain. Customers can check in with an e mail, and voila, Kiki has created an on-chain account that can 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 drive of nature. She was one of many issues that almost all drew us to the corporate,” mentioned Ariana Simpson, a normal accomplice on the agency. “She has unimaginable experience within the magnificence house, but additionally a novel understanding of web3, which isn’t at all times one thing we see if we have now a founder popping out of a extra conventional business.”

Previous to founding Kiki, the Czech-born Bobosikova was the CEO of Epic Future Labs, a product improvement and model improvements company.

Simpson famous that Kiki just isn’t the agency’s solely guess on an organization that rewards prospects utilizing blockchain know-how. Final yr, a16z led a $24 million Sequence A of Blackbird Labs, a hospitality tech firm that developed a loyalty program that incentivizes visitors to dine in impartial eating places.

For now, Kiki has launched 5 product collections, together with a nail polish pen, for which customers can select the following colour Kiki will manufacture.

However, as Simpson identified, Kiki has plans to ultimately increase past the world of magnificence.

How lengthy will or not it’s till it’s attainable to vote on denims kinds or purse sizes? Maybe some time.

“We’ve got confronted insane challenges on the bodily facet of issues,” Bobiskova mentioned, including that some merchandise take for much longer to fabricate than others. “The ability of asking folks what they need and giving it to them, it’s very, quite simple. It’s simply very laborious to do.”