Picky Inc., a mobile-first content platform providing consumers with authentic information in the global beauty space, closed a $1.3 million pre-seed funding round.
WHO: Born out of K-beauty’s international appeal, Picky founder Jihong Lee leveraged his Korean and Silicon Valley experience to tackle the confusion caused by the proliferation of information in the global consumer beauty product space—too many brands, too many products, too much generic marketing. Picky is a mobile-first community that enables consumers to discover the best skincare and beauty brands and products that are right for them through extensive user reviews, educational content, and experts’ contributions. With a focus on authenticity, education, and personalization, its community creates and consumes content about skincare and beauty, including K-beauty. Picky’s product is cross-platform: iOS, Android, and web.
WHY: Picky will use its pre-seed funds to accelerate its fast-growing mobile community so that consumers can discover the best beauty brands and products for themselves, and brands can find and grow their customer base more efficiently.
IN THEIR OWN WORDS: “I’m incredibly thankful to our impressive bench of investment partners. I hold each and every one of them at the highest level of respect, and for them to have a stake in Picky’s future is truly humbling,” said Jihong Lee, founder and CEO, Picky, Inc. “The beauty industry is on the cusp of a revolution. Consumers are more sophisticated in their search for beauty and skincare products and they want clean ingredients, eco-friendly packaging, and relatability. I believe a new reliance on authentic data will become the hottest trend in beauty marketing. Together with our investors, we can take Picky, from a startup to a global phenomenon.”
Jeffrey Lee, co-founder and partner at NLVC, said: “NLVC sees great potential for leveraging Korea’s cultural and technologically-forward society towards large global opportunities. Picky leverages the established global popularity of Korea-sourced consumer goods, the founder’s Silicon Valley and Korean background along with the founding team’s expertise honed at world-class tech companies, creating a company with unmatched capability to lead this new wave. We foresee Picky expanding globally at a much faster clip. We’re honored to be supporting the Picky team.”
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