Offering precision, innovation, productivity, and speed, beauty robotic services are continuing to grow. AI applications in the beauty industry will reach a value of $13.34 billion by 2030, according to InsightAce Analytic, while the robotics market size will grow to $95.93 billion by 2029.
The innovators bringing robotics into beauty have found an equally enticing commercial opportunity. LUUM Precision Lash is tackling the $1.6 billion eyelash extensions market while Umia Beauty’s AI-powered, nail-painting robot is addressing the $8.8 billion nail salon market. Aescape has set its sights on the $18.25 billion global massage therapy marketed (expected to grow at a CAGR of 7.1% from 2024 to 2030). Robosculptor has ambitions for the $8.9 billion global body contouring market (expected to reach $14.6 billion by 2033).
Despite these ripe opportunities, the path to entering the market is not an easy one. BeautyMatter spoke to Nathan Harding, CTO and co-founder of LUUM Precision Lash; Modi Liu, co-founder of Umia Beauty; Eric Litman, founder and CEO of Aescape; and Dennis Ledenkof, founder of Robosculptor to gain insight into the challenges of building and scaling robotics for the beauty industry.
Finding Funding
Innovation doesn’t come at a low price tag, especially for hardware. A 2022 McKinsey & Company Global Industrial Robotics Survey across 65 executive leaders—from the full spectrum of industries from automotive and food and beverage, top pharmaceuticals, logistics and fulfillment, and retail and consumer goods—found that 71% saw the cost of robots as the primary challenge to adoption. Knowledge of how to implement systems and technology readiness were the second and third challenges for retail and consumer goods.
“I still always think of financing as the greatest challenge,” Harding said. “The problem for robotics in general is that most venture capitalists use the metrics of software investments and try to overlay those on robotics investments. Right out of the gate, they [venture capitalists] say you need to have at least a million in revenue to get a Series A. In robotics, I can't even make the sellable product without a Series A.”
Harding also noted that the number of male investors willing to invest in the beauty market also makes for a smaller pool of potential investors.
“It’s a vicious cycle because people know robotics take longer, and there are less investors who will invest in it. So you end up with less financing, which makes you move slower.”
LUUM Precision Lash hit a slowdown of pace in 2020, when it had to downsize its team, but it has steadily moved forward nonetheless. In July 2022, LUUM Precision Lash raised $2.9 million in seed funding from companies like Ulta Beauty and Foundation Capital. A Series A round in November 2024, led by Long Journey Ventures, Artifact Capital, and Boardman Bay Capital Management, raised its total capital to $30 million.
Litman stated that when he began the company in 2017, robots in personal care were “an incredibly novel idea.” Incremental proof points of the concept’s potential and economic opportunity over the first few years helped bring in more funding. The first proof of concept was a robot arm that took 45 days to build. The company used video clips of this working fragment to generate excitement and enthusiasm for potential investors.
“By the time we raised our seed, we had a prototype that didn't require tremendous amounts of imagination to see where this would go,” Litman explained. “From that [the prototype], we were able to quickly build a high-quality team that empowered us to build a new prototype that looked an awful lot like what we have today. Combined with the substantial advancements we made in the quality of the experience, raising the Series A was actually, on the balance, quite easy,” Litman said. By the time Aescape raised its Series A, it had 100 individual investors involved.
While building the first prototype for its Seed Round took approximately $12 million, in November 2022, Aescape raised $30 million, followed by $83 million in outside funding in March 2025 to scale operations and expand geographically. “We were really fortunate to bring in a great partner like Valor Equity Partners that has been there for the long haul,” Litman said. “As you look to scaling and building a deep tech company, because of the complexities involved in building hardware, ideally you find early partners that can be there with you as you grow and continue to support the business.”
Robotics also requires lengthy amounts of research and renovations to reach its final form, whether it’s hardware or software. “In robotics, we call it Moravec's paradox: what is hard for humans is easy for robots and vice versa,” Ledenkof said. “Such projects can only be driven by passion and a huge belief in impact that the team may add to the world.” To date, the company is still privately funded.
Umia Beauty was established in 2019 and has been sustaining itself, first through self-funding and later outside investments. “A big resistance of people knowing where the company would go at the very early stages was understanding it is going to be very capital intensive for the research process,” Liu said. In nail care, there's a general understanding that the demand is there. The question was always around building hardware because that is going to be very demanding.”
Five years of R&D, 100,000 nail data points, and 3,000 test manicures have gone into optimizing the company’s offerings. Aside from 11 iterations of its machine, the company also developed its own gel polishes to work with the machine, adapting the base, color, and top coat formulas to the ideal viscosity, performance, and finish. The new model will bring to market the ability to do a full gel polish application (including nail art) on both hands in 20 minutes. Designs are maintained and constantly updated in the company’s cloud system.
Bringing the Machine to the Masses
Once the prototypes are built, it’s about bringing the product to market and optimizing any hardware or software components. This requires additional funding, but building momentum around the machinery with partnerships is a key component of securing those additional rounds of investor dollars.
LUUM Precision Lash brought its services to Ulta Beauty’s San Jose stores in December 2023. Booking rates reached 90% with a 70% repeat customer rate, outperforming the assumptions for its own financial models. “We were terrified no one would show up, but we ended up being a legend at Ulta because we brought people into that store. That really broke the dam because it was enough to convince a group of investors that there's product-market fit here. Once we took that risk off the table with the Ulta pilot, then we could raise a bigger amount of money, which we're using to build the first production machines. Now we can show that those [machines] can actually go out in the world and make money, which will bring in the next [round of] financing,” Harding said. Subsequently, LUUM Precision Lash also secured a pilot program with Nordstrom, which has been equally successful, boasting a net promoter score of 90.
Aescape struck up partnerships with a selection of high-profile wellness and hospitality chains like Equinox, Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, Marriott International, and The Ritz-Carlton. The company currently has 40 massage robots in the market and is expected to ship an additional 400 models this year. Its newest massage machine collects over 1.1 million data points through a body scan, plus offers service adaptations like massage strength, region, and ambient sound according to consumer preference.
Establishing the brand in the premium and luxury category through these high-profile partnerships grows Aescape with “tremendous enthusiasm,” but the company also receives demands from value-based providers. It has responded with tiered offerings (Aescape Essentials and Aescape Lux) to allow a continued point of differentiation for its higher-priced partners. “While we're continuing to scale in the premium luxury category, there is substantial growth coming for us this year in the essential category,” Litman said.
Robosculptor made its first sale in 2024, with plans to manufacture and deploy 25-40 machines worldwide. Pilot programs are scheduled with select hotels and resorts across Europe, the US, and the Middle East. Umia Beauty plans to officially launch in 2025 into the UK market, focusing on nail and hair salons as the main avenue of distribution.
Overcoming Mindset Barriers
While the fear of robots replacing the human workforce is understandable, the use of these machines can actually drive up profits while protecting employees from injuries from repetitive motions. It’s also a solution for the shortage of practitioners. LUUM Precision Lash’s technology is still technician-operated, so it offers an opportunity for more revenue with less physical effort, with eyelash extensions done at a three times faster rate than human application.
Robosculptor can provide 240 sessions a month, triple that of human industry standards. Ledenkof told BeautyMatter that the maintenance of a robot is lower than a therapist's salary ($3,500 vs. $6,000-$9,000, with taxes), making it more productive and affordable. “The way we receive treatment is evolving gradually, but it will take time for robots to earn people's trust. They must first be perceived as safe, then efficient, and ultimately, even lovable—especially in wellness and beauty, where emotional connection plays a crucial role.”
Litman highlights mindset as the biggest hurdle to mass adoption. “We've had to generate the proof points that what we're building is real, desirable, achievable, and it will be relevant to a large enough audience that counts on the capital market side, on the partners that deploy our tables, and among the consumers with whom we engage.”
COVID provided a significant boost in shifting that consumer mindset, with increased automation and a faster pace of technological change. “More introduction of robotics and AI into the zeitgeist are tailwinds that helped to buoy us on the partnership side. It helps consumers not just be less anxious about the concept of human-robot interaction, but in many cases crave a service where they can be fully in control.”
The machine designs also help overcome the apprehension of consumers who might perceive a robotics encounter as cold or impersonal. LUUM Precision Lash’s application style has been described by customers as butterfly-like. Aescape’s massage tips are warmed to 95°F and the machine is trained through massage therapists. “There's a real human element to this. We want to deliver a great massage, but it's booked, managed, and priced differently. In doing so, we're not just addressing the substantial market need for more access to massage,” Litman said. “We're also opening up massage services to the whole world of people who wouldn't get massages from humans due to the lack of comfort with a stranger. We are seeing substantial adoption among that set of people.”
Liu sees Umia Beauty as democratizing nail services. “One of the challenges for the nail industry, despite booming, is consistency, the ability to standardize production, and delivery to the customer, especially with nail art. Our technology will change that,” she said. “For consumers, that's easier access to great design quality, time efficiency, and less damage to nails.”
The number of US nail technicians is estimated to grow 12% from 2023 to 2033, given the increase in demand for their services. Umia Beauty’s offerings tap into that growing workforce, giving them a platform to showcase their designs while earning commissions every time their creation is selected.
Because Umia Beauty’s robot doesn’t offer nail prep or extra embellishments, consumers would still see nail techs or artists for these services. “We've taken out the most toxic part of their job. You don't have to smell the nail polish fumes or be exposed to the UV light anymore,” Liu said. “We’re also improving their efficiency. Instead of taking care of 5 or 6 customers, they can now do 10 or 12 because the most lengthy and physically demanding part of their job is taken out.”
In the field of massage therapy, there is an average of 22,800 job openings each year. “That gap is widening as fewer people choose to go into massage therapy as a profession, and more consumers are demanding it. We are creating economic opportunity where there are real challenges, and we are opening up and making more accessible great self-care to a much wider audience,” Litman said.
Fueling the Next Stage of Growth
Looking to the future integration of robotics, in some cases, companies are joining forces. In February 2025, manicure robotics company 10Beauty acquired its competitor Clockwork to integrate its intellectual property to accelerate the launch of its full manicure machine. Clockwork will redirect its focus on developing 10Beauty’s offerings, which started as a B2B enterprise but is hoping to develop toward DTC offerings in the future.
Other companies are expanding the genre of offerings. Robosculptor is looking to expand into physiotherapy and is expecting to deploy 25 to 40 machines worldwide in 2025. Pilot programs are scheduled in hotels and resorts across Europe, the US, and the Middle East. Ledenkof is cautious about the impact of the current economic climate on the road ahead. “Robotic body treatments in a post-pandemic world—combined with workforce shortage in a volatile economy—is something that has never happened before. Therefore, any predictions we make today are likely to be wrong.”
Umia Beauty currently has 527 preorders for its machine, with interest evenly distributed across North America, Europe, Australia, Africa, and Mexico. “We're pretty optimistic because people like our technology and want to bring it to market,” Liu said. “For mass adoption to be possible, it requires all stakeholders. Business owners, nail techs, nail artists, consumers, and investors are all part of the ecosystem. It’s getting people to recognize how powerful hardware robotics can help the beauty industry. When there is enough benefit, people are willing.”
LUUM Precision Lash is investing its Series A into developing its production machine, a more compact and faster version of its predecessor, with an eye on growth for the years ahead. “We could easily deploy 10,000 of our machines, and then we start to have a good chunk of that market,” Harding said.
Litman describes the market opportunity for Aescape as “a substantial multibillion dollar business. Aescape has a 30% repeat utilization rate and is now looking to expand on the range of treatable body regions, as well as enhance personalization through a larger content library, more media, and more engagement, “turning it into a richer and richer experience.” The company will also be rolling out nationwide expansion this year, opening up to international markets next year. While Aescape still plans the regions where it will roll out, “there is a tremendous pull from Europe, the Middle East, and key Asian markets.”
Beauty robotics can boost accessibility and efficiency, creating new economic opportunities. Growing consumer interest and strategic partnerships are powerful tools for unlocking further investor interest to make these benefits a reality. While it is an undoubtedly long and resource-intensive road getting beauty robotics to hit the mainstream, these machines have the potential to revolutionize beauty services indefinitely.
