SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Preemadonna - the makers of “Nailbot” - today announced a $5.6M overall seed round of funding. The round was led by Halogen Ventures with participation from Version One Ventures and the Amazon Alexa Fund. Preemadonna’s flagship product is Nailbot, a beauty device for Gen Z makers and artists and hits upon the trends of personalization, creative expression, and the COVID-accelerated movement towards “at home experiences.” Nailbot is a connected, at-home manicure device that instantly prints on nails any photo, emoji, image or any self-created design. Along with the product experience, comes a built-in community of Gen Z creators via a mobile app art marketplace.
Preemadonna CEO & Founder, Pree Walia, explains, "Our mission is to power creativity through interactive smart hardware. We view ‘nail’ as a category that is fun, playful, social and creative that also blends art, STEM and beauty. Gen Z young women are the most active consumers of nail products, and we are mobilizing a community of these dynamic makers around digital Nailbot nail art. We want our community of Preemadonnas to be co-creators of the products we build. Our vision is to pioneer new ways not only to decorate the fingernail but also the entire body with and for our Gen Z community for the purpose of self expression.”
“There’s never been a better time for a product like Nailbot for fun, interactive at-home beauty. The opportunity within the multi-billion dollar beauty industry alone is massive and Pree has enormous plans for this company. Imagine a product that sits between a next generation Fisher Price and the hair dryer with connected and entertainment capabilities like Peloton!” says Jesse Draper, Managing Partner at Halogen Ventures and Preemadonna Board Member.
“Pree is one of the most determined entrepreneurs that we’ve ever met, on a mission to power creative expression in beauty. At first glance, Preemadonna with its consumer hardware and beauty products, doesn’t seem like the typical startup in the Version One portfolio. However, as big fans of network effects, we see long-term defensibility through the community of Gen Z creators via the Nailbot mobile app art marketplace which accompanies the physical product experience,” says Angela Tran, General Partner at Version One Ventures and Preemadonna Board Observer.
Preemadonna is being named a winner of the Women Founders Represent program, a virtual pitch event hosted by the Amazon Alexa Fund and All Raise, a non-profit organization empowering women entrepreneurs and VC investors. Additionally, the Amazon Alexa Fund has invested in the company.
“We were thrilled to have Pree participate in our Women Founders Represent event, and we were impressed with Preemadonna’s technology, team and potential for integrations with Alexa,” said Paul Bernard, Director of the Amazon Alexa Fund. “We look forward to supporting Preemadonna’s team as it drives new innovation for at-home nail art through creativity and automation.”
Additional seed investors in Preemadonna include Two Small Fish, SOSV, Garage Capital, Draper Associates Investments, LLC., Shrug Capital, Telescopic Ventures, Cleo Capital; and a host of entrepreneurs including Tara Bosch - the founder of SmartSweets, Markus Frind - the founder of Plenty of Fish, Helen Greiner - co-founder of iRobot, Charles Huang - founder of Guitar Hero, & the Spanx by Sara Blakely Fund, a Donor-Advised Fund at Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors. Preemadonna is an alum of the HAX hardware accelerator and Founders Factory program.
About Preemadonna:
Preemadonna is a Silicon Valley-based technology startup that powers creative expression with interactive experiences by and for its community of makers and young women. Preemadonna’s first product, Nailbot, prints personalized art on nails in five seconds. The company is led by its founder and CEO, Pree Walia. A former political organizer and operator at early stage connected hardware ventures, Ms. Walia is a champion of Gen Z girls and women in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts & Math).
