Prose is a technology-powered custom hair-care brand that creates made-to-order formulas tailored to individual hair and scalp needs via an online consultation. Consumers provide lifestyle and environmental information; the company has collected roughly 500,000 consumer profiles using 135 data points each, including selfies for computer vision. Products are formulated and produced in its NYC lab and sold nationwide via prose.com and select stylists. Prose recently opened a new Brooklyn facility and is developing an automated customization infrastructure scheduled for mid-2019. The proprietary manufacturing system is expected to customize up to 10,000 products per day to scale fulfillment. The company plans to use new funding to build an in-house data science team and double its R&D headcount. Prose builds personalized hair-care formulations—shampoos, conditioners and hair masks—tailored to a customer’s hair type and local climate (pollution, wind, humidity). The company works with salons and stylists to co-design products and accommodates preferences such as vegan or GMO-free ingredients. Salons in San Francisco and New York have signed up and receive a 25% commission on sales. Prose manufactures its products in France and sells them at premium prices (8.5 oz shampoo retails for $28–$38). CEO Arnaud Plas, formerly of L’Oréal, intends to use the funding for research and development and to support the company’s launch. Investors have pointed to a growing machine-learning intelligence layer to aid customization, but the products are not yet priced for profitability.

Total raised

$23M

Funding rounds

2

Latest round

Series B

Latest activity

Nov 2018