
“Keurig For Makeup” Company BoldHue Raises Over $3M In Seed Funding To Launch Custom Foundation Device
BoldHue, the beauty technology company behind a cosmetics-mixing countertop device, has raised $3.37 million in seed funding to bring its total funding to $5.37 million and finance the release of its device.
Founded in 2020 by Rachel Wilson, former owner of candle brand Montane Designs, and Karin Layton, former engineer at Raytheon, the company has amassed a waiting list of 40,000-plus people for the device, which it describes as “Keurig for makeup,” and plans to fulfill its first 10,000 orders in the fall. BoldHue has its own clean light- to medium-coverage foundation for the launch, but will also work with third-party brands for its device to produce their foundations the way Keurig works with brands like Starbucks and Peet’s Coffee on coffee pods.
Constructed to be a bit larger than a Stanley cup to fit seamlessly in bathrooms, the device will initially be priced at $295. It houses six cartridges containing five colors and a base that are combined after users scan their faces in three different locations with a wand to dispense a week’s worth of custom foundation within minutes. Cartridge refills with about a month’s worth of foundation are expected to be priced at $15 to $20. Able to produce millions of shades, the device addresses the beauty industry’s ongoing problem formulating shades for consumers with darker skin tones.

“We’re solving a real pain point,” says Wilson, who serves as BoldHue’s CEO. “This isn’t just a fun kind of thing to have in your home that maybe you use once in a while. It’s truly a pain point that many makeup wearers have been suffering for far too long, and consumers have gotten very, very loud for inclusivity, and brands are trying to keep up with that.”
She continues, “We wanted to be sure that we created a device that was simple and did what it said and is not overcomplicated at a price point that consumers would adopt it at. So, we feel the $295 price point really is great because it’s not just the device, it’s your first month of foundation. That is not the most profitable approach, but that is the approach that we thought was right for the consumers….Once it lands in the home, you move to your subscription model.”
“We wanted to be sure that we created a device that was simple and did what it said.”
Sarah Lucas, managing partner at early-stage venture capital firm Lucas Venture Group, is a big believer in BoldHue’s inclusive makeup proposition. A board member and backer of the company since 2021, she’s been integral to Lucas Venture Group joining the company’s latest round. Other participants in the oversubscribed seed round, BoldHue’s only priced round to date, are billionaire entrepreneur and “Shark Tank” star Mark Cuban, CAA managing partner Kevin Huvane, Capital Eleven, Backstage Capital and Tacoma Ventures.
In a statement, Lucas says, “Rachel and Karin have engineered the most elegant solution the beauty tech industry has ever seen, setting a new standard for innovation and excellence. The ‘wow’ moment when people realize their perfect match foundation is delivered instantly is incredible!”

Along with fulfilling its first orders, the seed funding will allow BoldHue to ramp up marketing and expand its team. As part of its marketing efforts, company representatives will be on the road visiting major cities across the United States to raise awareness of its device and grow its community in advance of the device’s launch. BoldHue’s eight-person team currently has heads of operations and marketing, a software engineer and an app developer in addition to Wilson and Layton. It anticipates hiring a customer experience manager soon.
Several companies preceding BoldHue have leveraged technology to personalize foundation and combat inclusivity issues to limited results. Experiments in this area at L’Oréal have flamed out, including artificial intelligence-powered at-home system Perso and foundation customization platform Le Teint Particulier by Lancôme. Shiseido tread on similar territory with now-defunct MatchCo, an app that accumulated consumer skin tone data to guide foundation shades. MatchMyMakeup and Dcypher are among existing technology-driven foundation shade-matching concepts.
“The ‘wow’ moment when people realize their perfect match foundation is delivered instantly is incredible!”
Wilson has studied the landscape extensively and argues some of BoldHue’s predecessors ran into trouble due to friction it avoids between skin tone scanning and product shipment. However, she acknowledges there’s a heavy burden of education placed on BoldHue to get people to understand its device. It’s already been posting content on social media for a year and a half to do so.
BoldHue has 136,100 followers and 4.3 million views on TikTok, and TikTok videos featuring it have garnered millions of views. The company reports it’s gone viral 12 times, and that’s happened despite spending zero on digital advertising, according to Wilson. To engage fans, it’s shared steps on its road to market—TikTok videos, for example, give them peeks at old prototypes—and invites them to voice their opinions on aspects of its products like packaging color. Out of the gate, Boldhue’s device is oatmeal colored, and it’s packaged in a green box.

With an app, BoldHue’s device can be connected via Bluetooth to mobile phones and computers, where profiles will show the foundations it’s concocted for users. Wilson mentions a family can employ the same device and family members can choose their profile to instruct it to churn out the foundation tailored to them. In the future, data BoldHue collects could inform product recommendations beyond foundation based off users’ foundation shades. A smaller device could be down the line, too.
As she directs BoldHue, Wilson draws lessons from leading her previous brand Montane Designs, which went into Nordstrom within six months of her starting it. “It just exploded in a way that I did not know how to scale, so that was really hard,” she says. “Lesson No. 1 is you cannot build a company on your own, and you really need to be methodical at every milestone and at every juncture. Coming over to BoldHue, I think that has really helped in just taking milestones in bite-sized chunks to be sure we don’t get ahead of ourselves.”
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