US haircare firm Prose closes $18m Series B financing round

US-based haircare firm Prose has closed an $18m Series B financing round that was led by Insight Venture Partners and had seen participation of existing investors, Forerunner Ventures, ISAI, Lerer Hippeau Ventures and Correlation Ventures.

This round takes the total funding raised by the company to $25m.

The technology-powered haircare brand was launched in January 2018.

Prose co-founder and CEO Arnaud Plas said: “While we embrace the latest in modern technology, our mission at Prose is deeply rooted in the history of beauty and its one-to-one approach to making products.

“The traditional FMCG model, based on consumer segmentation and upfront mass production is coming to an end. It generates frustration for customers and waste for the planet. What we’re building is a modern beauty company for the new generation.”

Prose claims to experience double-digit growth month-over-month.

To support its quick growth plans, the firm is developing an automated customisation infrastructure which will be deployed by mid-2019 in its facility in Brooklyn, New York.

This manufacturing system will have a daily capacity to customise up to 10,000 products, allowing Prose to provide service to more consumers than before.

Through online consultation, Prose has collected half a million consumer profiles, pulling in 135 data points each, including consumer pictures that will help train its computer vision algorithms.

Insight Venture Partners principal Nicolas Wittenborn said: “Not only is Prose leading the charge in disrupting the industry, but by creating a fully integrated software and supply chain infrastructure rooted on first-party data, they are building a defensible model that will ensure they are always one step ahead.”

Wittenborn will join Prose’s board of directors.

Besides investing in an in-house data science team, the firm plans to double its current R&D team in the next twelve months.

Prose CTO and co-founder Nicolas Mussat said: “Our in-house teams of chemists and data engineers work together to train machine-learning algorithms.

“We’re processing feedback from thousands of consumers, not only to improve their individual products, but also to train the overall algorithms for our community. This will help Prose reach unprecedented product satisfaction in the coming months.”