Beauty artist marketplace Vanitee is sitting pretty on $1.4M funding

Singaporean beauty marketplace Vanitee announced today it has raised US$1.4 million (S$2 million) in its first funding round. The funding comes from beauty, cosmetics, and fragrances company Luxasia, and Singaporean business figure and angel investor Robert Yap.

Luxasia is a major distributor of international fragrance and cosmetics brands in the region, such as Burberry, Clarins, Dior, Ferragamo, and Shiseido. Robert Yap is the chairman of Singaporean logistics and supply chain company YCH Group. He has previously invested in technology companies such as cashless payment systems manufacturer Numoni. Yap and Luxasia CEO Patrick Chong are also advisors to Vanitee.

Launched four months ago, Vanitee offers a marketplace where users can connect with beauty professionals and book their services. The platform features nail and make-up artists, hair stylists, and other beauticians who offer their services through the mobile app.

The marketplace is one part of Vanitee’s service. The other is a suite of tools for independent beauty professionals who don’t have the means to market themselves online and increase their customer base. The startup provides customer relationship management (CRM) tools, real-time scheduling, online marketing, and operational set-up, making life easier for self-employed beauticians.

The funding will be used to boost the startup’s manpower. Vanitee has grown from six people back in May to 23 people at the moment, according to co-founder Douglas Gan. The company will be looking to fill nine more vacancies that include engineering, creative, content, and customer service roles in the next three months, he says.

The beautiful game

Vanitee has been growing steadily during the past four months. “Since [our launch], our numbers have jumped from a mere one or two bookings a day to more than 70 bookings at our best hour,” Douglas says.

He adds the startup has more than 2,600 paying customers, with an average booking of S$78 (US$55). Back in May, it worked together with ridesharing service Uber for a promotion campaign involving on-demand manicure for Mother’s Day. “They showed us we can get a strong few thousand bookings in less than four hours (the campaign period),” Douglas points out.

Going forward, the company wants to keep building trust between consumers and the professionals it works with. Douglas says the team has built a 27-step verification process for beauty artists. It’s also in talks with users to consider consumer verifications for housecall services. An in-app chat feature has been added to enable communication between the user and the beauty artist before booking.

See: Vanitee fair: new service connects beauty professionals to customers in Singapore The online-to-offline (O2O) space in Singapore and the region is rapidly getting more crowded. From dedicated services like Wellnessly and LookBooker to gotta-catch-em-all ones like Page Advisor, there are multiple startups trying to harness the army of independent professionals and freelancers out there.

Douglas feels Vanitee’s strong and diverse team of 23 helps it stay ahead of the curve. Plus, as the startup looks to expand in other markets (the team is currently considering which ones), he thinks acquiring similar startups isn’t out of the question. He’s done it before with his previous startups, location-based service provider ShowNearby and ecommerce service VanityTrove. “I’m a big fan of acquiring startups that can help us gain speed,” he says.