BeautyMatter 2023 NEXT Innovator of the Year Candace Mitchell Harris lands a new experiential partnership with Ulta Beauty and strategic investment from the retailer's venture arm Prisma Ventures and the BrainTrust Fund for her AI haircare tech company Myavana.
WHO: Candace Harris founded Myavana in 2012 as a B2C and B2B solution, leveraging 17 years of experience in computer science to develop AI haircare technology that analyzes the variables of hair strands and hair products to produce personalized haircare plans that support healthy hair and hair growth. She is a pioneer within a space that is overwhelmingly homogenous and noninclusive, carving out solutions for BIPOC women, a group often ignored.
Backed by over a decade of research, development, and data, Myavana is disrupting the multibillion-dollar textured haircare market as a pioneer of HairAI (Artificial Intelligence Hair Strand Analysis) technology and HairSI (Scientific Hair Strand Analysis). Myavana Labs has analyzed over two billion hair strands, making it the world's largest database of textured haircare data. Myavana couples its personalized, scientific hair analysis with the company's prescriptive, data-driven hair product recommendation suite of over 3,000 commercially available hair products on the market.
All product recommendations have been performance tested and validated by Myavana for effectiveness on textured hair types and conditions. The Myavana suite of products forms a transformational haircare solution for consumers and an elevated data-driven service as well as retail opportunity for industry professionals. By partnering with Myavana's Consumer Intelligence Data Insights, hair product manufacturers can gain insights into textured hair conditions to inform product development needs.
WHY: The capital will go toward expanding the AI technology at retail, including salon channels and global product distribution, leveraging the company's consumer intelligence across the hair industry.
IN THEIR OWN WORDS: "Through Prisma Ventures, Ulta Beauty's digital innovation fund, we're always looking to support and invest in technologies that will pave the path forward for the world of beauty— especially those with like-minded values aiming to innovate the space through an inclusive lens," said Agustina Sartori, Senior Director of Digital Innovation at Ulta Beauty and Managing Director of Prisma Ventures. "Candace's visionary approach to digitizing beauty experiences for all hair types, including textured hair, is incredibly unique, and we're thrilled to collaborate with Myavana on its mission to open new doors for more guests through hair analysis technology."
"Myavana is emerging as a leader in beauty AI because its hair strand analysis super-serves every customer in this valuable marketplace— from the shopper seeking a personalized diagnosis to retailers and stylists wanting to sell the right products to shoppers the first time," said BrainTrust Fund General Partners Kendra Bracken-Ferguson and Lisa Stone. "We're looking forward to working with Candace and her team as the brand continues to accelerate."
"In the beginning at Myavana, we set out on a mission to transform the hair industry through science and technology, and I am ecstatic to partner with Ulta Beauty to begin this digital transformation in retail. Through our personalized haircare technology that will innovate and elevate our shopping experiences, we're excited to bring to market better identification and understanding of our unique hair strands and unique hair journeys while partnering with the nation's largest beauty retailer that prioritizes innovation and inclusion," said Harris, who is CEO and founder of Myavana.
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