Sequential Skin Ltd, a UK/Singapore biotech start-up has raised USD1.65 million in its oversubscribed seed round – to revolutionise the future of skin health.
The round was led by Metaplanet, and supported by Scrum Ventures, SOSV, Genedant, and angel investor, Ben Holmes (ex General Partner at Index Ventures). This latest investment brings the total venture funding raised by Sequential Skin to USD2.15 million in 2021.
The investment will be used to extend their B2B offering to skincare, haircare and healthcare companies, adding to the twelve major clients currently using Sequential Skin. Sequential Skin will also be rolling out their consumer product, with a focus on expanding into the US via New York City.
“The world of skincare is flooded with a confusing array of products that only help some of the people, some of the time,” says Rauno Miljand, Metaplanet Managing Partner. “We’re proud to lead the investment in Sequential Skin. It is the first company, using genomics and microbiome skin assays, that identifies to consumers the exact products suited for each individual.”
Some USD50 billion is spent on skincare products per annum in the US. Despite the value of mass marketed skincare products, the only way to truly understand skin health and create personalisation, is to understand your genetic predispositions and your skin microbiome. Consumers are demanding better solutions. Understanding these biomarkers allows for not only personalised skincare, but the ability to discover novel targets to treat skincare disease like atopic dermatitis.
“We now have significant traction in assembling an extensive dataset on skin types from Asia, Europe and the US—a great chance for us to discover novel biomarkers for skin conditions in different populations,” says Dr Oliver Worsley, CEO and co-founder.
The funding will significantly boost their IP portfolio, using their novel patch-based, skin analysis, to develop further tools to understand how your genetics, epigenetics and skin microbiome, affect health and disease.
Dr Albert Dashi, CSO and cofounder, adds: “Our scope is to provide science to people and empower them with the right tools and knowledge so they make the right decision for the future of their skin health and well-being.”
