Kiki World, a beauty brand that uses web3 for customer co-creation and ownership, raises $7M from a16z

If you think that choosing a nail polish color or the ingredients that go into your face cream have nothing to do with blockchain, think again.

World Kikia beauty startup launched last year, wants consumers to co-create products and co-own the business using web3 technology.

On Tuesday, Los Angeles-based Kiki announced it raised a $7 million seed round from crypto fund Andreessen Horowitz and The Estée Lauder Companies’ New Incubation Ventures, as well as other backers such as OrangeDao and 2Punks Capital.

Kiki co-founder Jana Bobosikova said she thinks being a loyal user of a brand in the world of Web 2.0 could be a distinctly negative experience. “You’ve probably seen many creators on TikTok recommending it to you. You’ve probably recommended it to all your friends. And what do you get for that? Just more retargeted ads,” she said.

Kiki flips this model on its head by allowing members of its community to vote on the features they want before beauty products are made. As a reward, voters earn points for free products and receive digital tokens in the company.

“It’s a dynamic that the Internet and your bathroom haven’t experienced yet,” Bobosikova said.

And since it’s not uncommon for cosmetics companies to end up with large amounts of inventory that they can’t sell, another advantage of Kiki’s on-demand approach is that it uses less capital and resources.

Although members’ votes on products are recorded on Ethereum, Bobosikova said that some participants do not need to know that they are acting on the blockchain. Users can log in with an email, and voilà, Kiki has created an on-chain account that will store members’ votes in perpetuity.

a16z decided to support Kiki after the startup completed its 10 Week Cryptocurrency Startup Accelerator Program. “Jana is a force of nature. She was one of the things that most attracted us to the firm,” said Ariana Simpson, general partner of the firm. “She has incredible expertise in beauty, but also a unique understanding of Web3, which isn’t always something we see if we have a founder from a more traditional industry.”

Before founding Kiki, Czech-born Bobosikova was CEO of Epic Future Labs, a product development and brand innovation agency.

Simpson noted that Kiki is not the company’s only bet on a company that rewards customers using blockchain technology. Last year, a16z conducted a $24 million Series A from Blackbird Labsa hospitality technology company that developed a loyalty program that incentivizes guests to dine at independent restaurants.

So far, Kiki has launched five product collections, including a nail polish pen, for which consumers can choose the next color that Kiki will make.

But, as Simpson pointed out, Kiki has plans to expand beyond the beauty world.

How long will it be before it’s possible to vote on jean styles or handbag sizes? Maybe a while.

“We faced insane challenges on a physical level,” Bobiskova said, adding that some products took much longer to make than others. “The power of asking people what they want and giving it to them is very, very simple. It’s just very difficult to do.