GetHarley, a platform that connects customers with skincare clinicians and associated merchandise, has raised $52 million in a spherical of funding led by current investor Index Ventures.
Based out of London in 2019 by Charmaine Chow, GetHarley is a telehealth platform that offers anybody a direct channel to certified skincare professionals, together with dermatologists and plastic surgeons, who suggest merchandise and coverings for circumstances similar to pimples, uneven pores and skin tone or hyperpigmentation, rosacea, melasma and extra. On-line consultations value £40 ($50) for half-hour, although the place extra complicated medical histories are concerned, sufferers will pay £150 ($186) for a extra senior-level guide dermatologist.
A part of GetHarley’s enterprise mannequin entails promoting skincare merchandise as a part of a personalised plan, catering to particular particular person components similar to whether or not the person has dry or oily pores and skin, or how mild / darkish their pores and skin is. Merchandise might embody something from cleansers and serums to moisturizers and eye lotions.
GetHarley field. Picture Credit: GetHarley
Pores and skin within the sport
The broader world skincare merchandise market was pegged as a $130 billion business in 2021, nevertheless, GetHarley positions itself in a narrower area of interest categorized as “medical-grade skincare” or “cosmeceuticals” as they’re typically known as. These are form of hybrids between cosmetics and prescribed drugs, formulated with a “increased focus of lively elements” than what you would possibly discover in a retailer and are sometimes solely out there via clinicians. This was estimated as a $45 billion business in 2021.
The skincare market measurement has been a boon for skincare startups too, with LA-based Topicals and Mom Science, and Kenya’s Uncover, all elevating enterprise capital (VC) money in latest months to develop their own-brand skincare merchandise.
GetHarley is taking a barely totally different method, as an alternative curating established merchandise and utilizing certified clinicians to suggest particular plans. With 1000’s of merchandise available on the market, many with their very own distinctive pitch on why they’re the perfect factor since sliced bread, it’s tough to filter via the noise — GetHarley guarantees to make issues a bit of simpler.
“The skincare business is overflowing with false claims, celeb advertising and marketing and 1000’s upon 1000’s of decisions about find out how to care on your pores and skin,” Chow stated in a press launch. “You find yourself losing big quantities of time, cash and vitality making an attempt to determine what works for you. I ought to know — I seemed in all places for options for my difficult pores and skin. And whereas customers are being pulled in a number of instructions, clinicians are time-poor and overstretched and you’ll by no means fairly pay money for them. GetHarley solves all this, giving consultants a one-stop platform, and serving to world customers get entry to the perfect recommendation in a crowded market.”
Before now, GetHarley had raised round $15 million in funding, and within the 4 years since its basis, the corporate says it has garnered some 100,000 lively customers and amassed a staff of 70 — a determine it expects to double over the subsequent 12 months.
Along with lead backer Index, GetHarley’s newest funding spherical included participation from Headline, Visionaries Membership and Village World.