NakedPoppy Closes $4M Seed Round

NakedPoppy, the first clean beauty site powered by intelligent technology, today announced the launch of NakedPoppy.com, the online destination for on-the-go women who seek the highest standards in hand-vetted, luxe, and long-lasting clean makeup. NakedPoppy's intelligent proprietary technology enables women to enjoy a highly personalized, curated experience that dramatically simplifies the process of finding just the right products. In addition, NakedPoppy released its first branded beauty product, NakedPoppy Clean Liquid Eyeliner. Lastly, the company announced that it has received $4 million in seed funding from leading Silicon Valley investors.

NakedPoppy.com debuts at a time when makeup regulations are grossly out-of-date in the United States. Since the most recent federal law was enacted in 1938, tens of thousands of new chemicals have been introduced to the marketplace, many of which haven't been adequately tested for safety. Meanwhile, labels are difficult to decipher, with NakedPoppy research showing that 7 in 10 women characterize it as "difficult" or "very difficult" to assess which makeup is free of harmful chemicals.

NakedPoppy was created to help, establishing the highest standards for clean products based on four criteria: everything on NakedPoppy.com should be cruelty-free, low in environmental impact, ethically made, and free of harmful chemicals.

NakedPoppy's cosmetic chemists carefully screen each product it sells for these characteristics. Out of about 80,000 chemicals registered in the United States, about 12,500 are available for use in personal care products. NakedPoppy's pool of scientifically screened, allowable clean ingredients is fewer than 700 across all the brands it carries. This pool is constantly changing as new studies emerge so that women can always be sure that their makeup is of the highest quality. Additionally, makeup artists and NakedPoppy staff review each product to make sure it performs as beautifully as conventional makeup.

"Women are increasingly concerned about what they put on their faces, near their eyes, and on their lips. They're also understandably confused about how to distinguish what's genuinely clean from what's marketed as 'natural,'" said Jaleh Bisharat, NakedPoppy co-founder and CEO. "NakedPoppy does the hard work of carefully vetting for the cleanest of the clean so that customers don't have to. In addition, NakedPoppy's disruptive personalized shopping experience lets each woman find perfect-for-her clean makeup with unprecedented ease, speed, and confidence."

Personalized boutiques simplify online makeup shopping

NakedPoppy customers find their ideal products by completing an expert online assessment that takes about three minutes. NakedPoppy's patent-pending technology then instantly uncovers perfect-for-her picks, assembling them into each customer's personalized clean makeup boutique.

NakedPoppy's personalization algorithm takes into account a wide range of considerations including skin type, skin color, skin undertone, age, eye color, hair color, allergies, sensitivities, beauty goals, and more. Its proprietary technology can even interpret photographs of a customer's wrist to accurately pinpoint her base skin color. This in turn allows NakedPoppy to find the best hues for each customer.

"Our data science, green chemistry, and makeup artist teams worked around the clock to develop this personalized experience, which we believe is a breakthrough in how people will shop for beauty products going forward," said Kimberly Shenk, NakedPoppy co-founder and Chief Product Officer. "Customers shouldn't have to waste time wading through products that won't work for them or wondering which shade best suits them. Now they don't have to."

To make choosing clean makeup simple, products are accompanied by a score that indicates the degree to which a product will be an ideal match. For example, a product with a 99% score will be much more suitable for a given customer's skin, coloring, age, and other characteristics than another product with a 60% score.

Clean Liquid Eyeliner debuts as NakedPoppy's first signature product

In addition to curating clean makeup from the world's best clean brands, and due to the co-founders' inability to find a clean liquid eyeliner that performed to their standards, the company today launched its own product: NakedPoppy Clean Liquid Eyeliner.

Formulated and manufactured in Italy, NakedPoppy Clean Liquid Eyeliner was co-created with NakedPoppy's test panel of clean beauty enthusiasts. They shared their desired criteria for the perfect liquid eyeliner and tested early samples, providing feedback on all aspects of the formulation and voting on the preferred application brush.

"This is a hero product, no doubt about it," said Susan Lyne, Managing Partner of BBG Ventures, former CEO of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia and Gilt Groupe, and a NakedPoppy angel investor. "Most eyeliners start drying out after a few weeks and get harder to apply. This one is still as supple as the day I got it. It looks natural, lasts all day and washes off easily with soap. It's pretty perfect."

NakedPoppy Clean Liquid Eyeliner is vegan and suitable for sensitive eyes.

Proven team secures A-list backing to transform how women buy makeup

As the company prepares to launch NakedPoppy.com, it has secured $4 million from a slew of prominent venture capital investors. These include Cowboy Ventures, Felicis Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Maveron, Polaris Ventures, and Slow Ventures.

"We see enormous potential for NakedPoppy as every category of personal care and beauty is being transformed with clean ingredients at its core. NakedPoppy combines the highest standard for clean beauty with the curated personalized shopping experience that delivers recommendations like we've never seen before," said Victoria Treyger, General Partner at Felicis Ventures. "Additionally, NakedPoppy is run by an exceptional team that has built some of the leading commerce brands of today. The founders are obsessed with delivering the new standard for clean beauty for their customers."

About NakedPoppy

NakedPoppy is founded and led by proven executives Jaleh Bisharat and Kimberly Shenk. Bisharat is known for nurturing some of Silicon Valley's most vibrant brands from the ground up. She is the former CMO/VP Marketing at Amazon, OpenTable, Upwork and Eventbrite. She has also served on the Board of Directors at OpenTable and Homestead Technologies. Shenk, trained at the U.S. Air Force and MIT, adds deep technology experience after building and running data science and product teams at tech and retail companies as well as for the U.S. Air Force. She led the data science team at Eventbrite, headed product at Domino Data Labs, and is on the advisory board of the Data Institute at USF