Thai Express founder invests in beauty services site’s $3.5m round

Makeup services will soon be available on Vanitee.

Vanitee, a website where people can book beauty services, has been dolling up for investors lately. It announced a successful close of a S$5 million (US$3.5 million) fundraising round, part of which was disclosed earlier.

The latest backers to join the stable include Ivan Lee, better known in Singapore as the founder of the Thai Express group of restaurants. He sold the business for S$100 million in 2009. He then started Raging Bull, a private investment company which he’s using to invest in Vanitee. Major Japanese cosmetics portal Cosme also put some money in.

People can pick the professional they like, book an appointment, and pay, all through the website and app. It now has nails, hairstyling, brow, and makeup services.

Vanitee also provides beauty professionals with tools to run their businesses better. These include a customer relationship management, real-time scheduling, revenue tracking, invoicing and billing, and more.

Now only available in Singapore, the funding will be used to expand Vanitee to Malaysia. Hirings and strategic acquisitions are also in the works.

Vanitee is founded by Douglas Gan, who has started multiple internet businesses. These include ShowNearby, a mobile directory app, and VanityTrove, a subscription service for beauty products.

Douglas did not disclose exact gross merchandise volume and monthly active user figures, but he tells Tech in Asia that they’re grown 102 percent and 78 percent on average respectively for the past three months.