In-Home Product Testing Platform Highlight Announces $7M Seed Funding Round

NEW YORK, March 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Highlight, an innovative platform for in-home user testing (IHUT), is excited to announce an additional $7 million in venture capital funding, to total $8.2M raised to date. Highlight is disrupting physical product testing by increasing the speed and accuracy of results with proprietary technology and audiences. The company's mission is to help consumer products exceed the rising bar consumers have, in an environment where 95% of the 30,000 products launched each year fail. 

First Round Capital led the latest $7 million funding round with participation from HearstLab, Sixers Innovation Lab, Scribble Ventures, Operator Partners, and angel investors Zander Lurie (CEO of Momentive, fka SurveyMonkey), Max Mullen (Founder of Instacart), Richard Thornton (former CEO of Cint), and Tom Bernthal (CEO of Kelton).

Highlight will use this capital to hire an all-star team and accelerate growth. The funding will accelerate the company's mission to raise the bar for physical product development.

Highlight received a seed investment from HearstLab and Sixers Innovation Lab in 2020. HearstLab invests in women-led technology startups. Sixers Innovation Lab provides support for early-stage companies on a fast growth trajectory.

Since launch in 2021, Highlight has grown explosively and powered agile product testing services for over 100 partners, tested hundreds of products, sent thousands of boxes, and completed tens of thousands of surveys. Early-stage and growth-stage brands that use Highlight's Agile IHUTs include Partake, Avec, Love Corn, and Sakara. Enterprise CPG companies, including Nestle, P&G, and Estee Lauder, have also turned to Highlight for product testing.

With Highlight Agile IHUTs, brands test products by delivering them to users' homes to incorporate them into their everyday routines. Brands get initial feedback within a few days, and most Agile IHUTs are completed within a month.

Highlight's clients have tested products in early development, blind-tested products against the competition, and benchmarked in-market products for category insight. Well-designed and executed IHUTs can provide reliable data on a broad range of products, from cookies to hand sanitizer to CBD products, setting them up for success.

About Highlight
Highlight is a next-gen market research business using technology to generate targeted, efficient, agile consumer insights for established and emerging CPG brands. This Agile IHUT platform and an engaged consumer panel community help co-create better products for tomorrow. For more info about the company, visit www.letshighlight.com 

SOURCE Highlight