Lithuanian beauty technology startup Watalook has raised around €825K in a pre-seed round co-led by Startup Wise Guys, Crosspring, Launchpad Capital, and angel investors.
Today’s US beauty services market is worth billions and employs 700K+ beauty professionals. The startup signals that now around 70% of these people work as independent contractors, compared to only 20% in the year 2011. That’s around half a million beauticians that need to be proficient in client acquisition and retention techniques, digital marketing campaigns, portfolio building, beauty blogging, and a 24/7 secretary to book appointments and send reminders to clients; this is all in addition to a 12-14h workday, pampering their beautiful clients.
Founded in 2020, Watalook is the app “every independent beauty professional dreamed about”. It provides a platform for 24/7 online client self-booking, a smart calendar that fills in the free time gaps first, sends automated text message updates and reminders for appointments, collects client data and provides insights like revenue, appointments frequency, cancellations or no-shows, etc. All of this has been designed with a mission to lift the energy-consuming processes from beauty rockstars’ shoulders, so they can focus on what they do best – beauty services.
“The data shows that the number of beauty professionals trusting Watalook digital assistant to manage their beauty businesses grows by leaps and bounds. We see a steady >30% month over month growth in the number of beauticians using Watalook, and consequently growing appointments booked through the platform by +34%”, shared the CEO and co-founder Klaudijus Ambrozas. “This success couldn’t be achieved with a merely good product, culture is what makes it vanguard and resonates with GenZ’s approach to life and digital nativeness”.
“Working with young beauticians’ generation we see that more than anything else, they seek financial health, recognition, close relationships, and a chance to become the voice that matters, thus big chunk of the $1 million investment will be dedicated to personalized beauticians’ digital marketing campaigns that will not only help to expand each US beauty rockstar’s clientele and generate more revenue, but will also make their voice louder and relationships with their clients – stronger,” added the CXO and co-founder Justas Vitenas.
The startup signals that is the “first-of-a-kind” offering in the beauty services industry, and it will revolutionize the way a hairstylist, nail technician, or makeup artist’s profession is perceived.
“We have seen remarkable growth of the company since we did our first investment almost a year ago. And these numbers prove to the public what we see firsthand – the team behind Watalook knows the market in and out, completely feels the vibe of Gen Z clients, and have the tools, knowledge, and guts to reach it. Excited to be part of this would be an understatement”, said Jone Vaituleviciute, Partner at Startup Wise Guys.
“Watalook has the right team and product to transform the beauty industry. We believe that beauticians should have full control of their hard-earned money and the data tied to it,”, said Ryan Gilbert, Founder of Launchpad Capital. Watalook is the second European startup that has received an investment from Launchpad Capital for an expansion to the US.
Launched in April 2020, Watalook has already outlasted two nationwide lockdowns that paradoxically only fueled the company’s growth – year to date number of beauty rockstars using Watalook digital assistant has already outperformed 2020 by +317%, and the majority of this surge has been achieved organically.
