Houston-based Upgrade Boutique, a tech-enabled beauty platform, raised a $1.7 million funding round and plans to open its first retail location this summer.
Upgrade's $1.7 million seed round was co-led by two Houston-based venture capital firms: Mercury Fund and The Artemis Fund. Additional investors in the seed round include Austin-based Next Coast Ventures. Upgrade has raised nearly $2 million in total venture capital funding, the company said.
Upgrade Salon is led by founder, CEO and Houston native Britney Winters. After graduating from Booker T. Washington High School, Winters earned an engineering degree from Stanford University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. While a student in Boston, Winters noticed a problem she and her Black female colleagues faced: finding the right hair stylists. They started coordinating trips from Boston to New York City in search of quality stylists, but that was expensive and didn't always yield great results, Winters said.
Based on these shared experiences, Winters knew there was a broader need for consistent and convenient access to quality stylists and hair products. The idea for Upgrade was born out of that need, she said.
"Working in corporate, my job required me to travel a lot," Winters said. "I was always either traveling or moving to different cities and starting over there each time. Having to find a stylist that you liked, that was professional, was always a very convoluted experience."
Upgrade provides a managed marketplace that connects consumers with stylists offering different color and customization services. Stylists, who operate as independent contractors on the Upgrade platform after a selection process, are able to promote their brands and set their own prices and the turnaround time for their services. The stylists also make custom wigs and extensions based on the customer's desires, and the products are shipped to the consumer ready to wear.
"It really just reduces or even eliminates the need to visit the salon," Winters said.
Using the funding from its seed round, Upgrade plans to hire for some key roles, Winters said. Upgrade is hiring for a stylist success manager and a customer success manager who will report to the firm's vice president of customer success. The seed funding will also help Upgrade develop new capabilities for the beauty platform, like a stylist-booking tool and an order-management dashboard.
But the Upgrade brand isn't just digital. Upgrade plans to open a flagship location in Houston in June, Winters said. The company is opening in a roughly 4,000-square-foot space at 5404 Almeda Road where stylists will have access to private suites. In addition to running the online marketplace, it was important for Upgrade to have a physical workspace for its stylists and employees in Houston.
"There are a lot of thriving businesses along that corridor, and we're excited to have that launch this summer," Winters said.
Winters also wants Upgrade to create opportunities for people living in her area of town, the Third Ward. The company will be hiring for associates to staff the first location soon, she said. In the future, the company aims to open locations in cities like Los Angeles, New York, Miami and Memphis, Tennessee.
Mercury Fund, one of Houston's oldest and most active VC firms, has invested in several Houston-based startups, with recent examples including Cart.com, Molecule, Graylog, WizeHire, Topl and other tech-focused companies. The Artemis Fund is a Houston-based venture fund focused on making investments into female-led companies. The fund launched in the spring of 2019.
