Today, Nøie – the customised skincare platform – announces it has raised $12m in Series A funding. The round was led by Talis Capital, with participation from Inventure, as well as existing investors including Thomas Ryge Mikkelsen, former executive vice president at Pandora, and Kristian Schrøder Hart-Hansen, former CEO of LEO Pharma’s Innovation Lab. The company will use the funding to further develop its R&D to launch new product categories, and expand into new European markets.
Founded in 2018 in Copenhagen, Nøie’s customised skincare products aim to improve the quality of life of people suffering with sensitive skin conditions including acne, psoriasis and eczema. Nøie is fixing the traditional skincare industry’s broken user journey by reinventing its outdated and linear approach to R&D. By screening thousands of skincare products on the market, selecting the highest performing and combining this with scientific research on specific ingredients, the company has been able to develop the largest database of skin profiles, named ‘skin families’. Upon taking Nøie’s rigorous skin test which uses an algorithm to assign customers to their skin family, customers are then recommended customised products to suit their skin.
Nøie supplements its in-depth dermatological knowledge with crowdsourced community feedback from customers to further improve its R&D loop. Nøie’s data model is inspired by precision medicine, combining the adaptive selection of active ingredients based on biomarkers with Bayesian Statistics. This allows them to continuously evaluate the effectiveness of their products and improve their statistical model with every feedback point. As a result, 78.1% of customers have reported an improvement in their skin after 30 days of using Nøie products.
The company was co-founded by serial entrepreneur Daniel Jensen and Chris Christiansen. Nøie was originally span out of LEO Pharma’s Innovation Lab, where Jensen, the CEO of Nøie, scaled the team from 20 to 110 people. Christiansen is the Chief Footprint Officer, responsible for driving sustainability and environmental responsibility within the business. Nøie has ambitions to become a carbon negative company: the body and hand creams are made from 100% post-consumer recycled plastic, and the moisturiser tubes are made from 50-75% recycled, food-compliant plastics with the caps made from 100% ocean waste plastic material. Nøie also provides CO2 neutral deliveries, compensating for carbon emissions produced in the shipping process by planting trees in Denmark. “We have committed to becoming actively sustainable,” Christiansen said. “Over the short-term, our goal is to remove more CO2 from the atmosphere than we emit. Over the long-term, we aim to be 100 percent circular in everything we do. The skincare industry is lacking behind in terms of sustainable packaging and we need to bring better alternatives to the market.”
Since its launch in November 2019, the company has seen huge traction, with an average month-on-month growth of 35% in 2020. The company has several products due to launch this year, including the world’s first customised sunscreen for sensitive skin.
Daniel Jensen, co-founder and CEO at Nøie, said: “Our mission is to reinvent how condition-specific skincare is designed, produced and consumed by applying a tech-driven approach. We think people living with skin conditions deserve a higher quality of life: most of us, or our close ones, suffer from skin problems, so we’re approaching the issue with first-hand experience.
“We are at a unique inflection point where today, technology and physical products are ready to merge: skincare has reached a new phase where tech can be built into its core. By taking a data-driven approach, we can significantly change the future for people struggling with skin conditions, and do so sustainably. We welcome Talis Capital and Inventure on our mission to fundamentally change the skincare industry’s approach to combatting specific skincare issues: their support will be invaluable in our next stages of expansion.”
Beatrice Aliprandi, principal at Talis Capital, said: “For too long have both the dermatology sector and the skincare industry relied on the outdated ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to addressing chronic skin conditions. By instead taking a data-driven and community feedback approach, Nøie is building the next generation of skincare by providing complete personalisation for its customers at massive scale, pioneering the next revolution in skincare. Daniel and the Nøie team have an incredible energy and passion for their work: their values and mission are built on both their own first-hand experiences and the frustrations of many. We’re incredibly excited to be joining Nøie in what inevitably will be a huge phase of growth for the company!”
Ekaterina Gianelli, partner at Inventure, said: “All the software we use daily has been developed and improved based on continuous customer feedback. It’s only natural that our skincare should be developed using a similar feedback loop – based on our individual skin, lifestyle, and environmental data. We believe Nøie’s team has the empathy, the passion and the courage to make it happen.”
