Bengaluru-based artificial intelligence-driven beauty and personal care brand has raised $5 million in a Series A round led by JSW Ventures with participation from Sharrp Ventures, SenseAI, and other existing investors.
According to an official statement, the startup plans to deploy these funds to grow its overall customer base, expand into adjacent categories and make further investments in technology.
Guna Kakulapati, Co-founder and CEO of CureSkin, said,
“There is a large market need for outcome-oriented, specialist care for skin and hair conditions. We believe that our data and technology-based approach to developing superior products and providing personalised advice will solve this problem and cater to every Indian’s skin, hair, and personal care needs.”
According to the Indian Association of Dermatologists, Venereologists, and Leprologists (IADVL), the largest representative society of Indian Dermatologists, there is one registered dermatologist for over 1,00,000 people in India. With the lack of qualified opinion and prescription-based medication, chemists act as a proxy resulting in major challenges related to damaged skin while creating an environment of distrust.
Launched in 2017 by two ex-Google employees Guna Kakulapati and Rama Rajanna, and dermatologist Charu Sharma, CureSkin uses AI to address these concerns by offering expert-designed personalised regimens through its technology platform. It has served users in the remotest regions across all states in India.
The app, which is available on Google Play store, enables users to take photos and instantly get AI analysis for acne, dark spots, pigmentation, wrinkles, and others for free. Its technology is built using a database of millions of images that detect skin conditions with high-level of accuracy across different skin types.
Once the analysis is complete, it prepares a personalised treatment that can be purchased through in-app transactions. The plan includes free diet and lifestyle guidance.
For users with good skin, the app suggests a dermatologist designed plan to maintain healthy skin and hair.
Sachin Tagra, Partner at JSW Ventures, said,
“CureSkin is a category creator in the technology led beauty and personal care industry. The capital will help the company to continue scaling its operations, innovate on new products and build a stronger technology solution that will allow the brand to become a category leader.”
In January 2020, the startup announced raising $500,000 in funding led by SenseAI Ventures.
Edited by Megha Reddy