Boston-based consumer skincare company Droplette is going to the Superbowl. It’s the only beauty brand that will be part of the gifting suite ahead of Sunday’s game, according to the company, making it available to players and their special guests.
But while being featured at the Superbowl is exciting, the startup's growth and innovation in the skincare industry stretches back a few years.
Founded by two MIT-educated women in 2017, Droplette is a skincare device and platform engineered to get products into the skin instead of just on top of it, said Rathi Srinivas, co-founder and CTO of Droplette.
Skin is evolved to keep things out, including high-end skin care products, according to Srinivas. The Droplette system breaks through more layers of the skin in a noninvasive way through a micro-mist, which she says makes the delivery of products more effective.
Droplette cofounders Srinivas and Madhavi Gavini, the CEO, know a thing or two about developing effective solutions using biotechnology. Previously, the mathematician and chemist duo developed a therapeutic drug for a pediatric heart condition using the mathematical knot theory to target cell receptors. The class of drugs she invited were the first granted to get approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for cardiomyopathy since 1994.
Srinivas and Gavini took the drug through preclinical trials before selling it, Srinivas said. They then started working on rare skin conditions, but realized that the ideas they were developing to get through the skin could be more broadly applicable.
“We realized it's actually much bigger than rare diseases,” Srinivas said.
Srinivas described Droplette as not just a device, but a whole platform. The company sells Nespresso pod-like capsules that go into the device that address a variety of skin concerns.
The device has two components: an aspect that acts like a nebulizer or humidifier, and a pump system that accelerates the spray mist. It makes the product hit the skin with the right force and at the right size to go deep into the skin, breaking past the top layers that usually serve as a barrier to products, Srinivas said.
“We can put anything inside of it and it enhances the delivery,” she said.
The team is actively developing new capsule type to address more conditions. Next up is tackling hair care and hair regrowth, she said.
Droplette came on the commercial market in 2020, and has grown significantly since. In the first year, they shipped less than 100,000 capsules to customers. To date, they have shipped over 7 million, Srinivas said.
The company’s capsule manufacturing is based out of the Seaport, and its team of 20 is largely Boston-based.
