Manicube Announces $5M in funding from Bain Capital Ventures

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Apr 15, 2014, 02:27 ET

NEW YORK, April 15, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Manicube, the leading beauty technology company bringing 15-minute manicures to offices, announced that it's received Series A funding led by Bain Capital Ventures, along with participation from existing investors including F Cubed.

According to IBISWorld, the US nail services market is predicted to reach $10.7 billion in 2018, a 9% projected five-year cumulative annual growth rate. The nail salon market is highly fragmented, localized, and unsophisticated-- only four percent of salons even allow for online booking. Manicube's consistent service offering, unique B2B market entry channel, attractive business model, and proprietary technology platform enables the company to provide hyper convenient, high-quality, affordable nail services to time-starved customers.

Manicube, operating since Summer 2012, has over 90 corporate clients across both the New York and Boston markets, including Fortune 100 companies. The company has spent the past 18 months developing its consumer booking, payments, and logistics technology as well as its proprietary protocol that allows for full-service manicures in 15 minutes. Manicube will use the capital to accelerate the rapid rollout of its core nail services to top US cities, starting with Chicago this May. Additionally, the company will use the funds to expand into other services and products and will launch a direct-to-consumer on-demand offering to serve individuals and small groups in late 2014.

Katina Mountanos and Liz Whitman, Co-Founders of Manicube commented, "We are thrilled to have Bain Capital Ventures supporting our growth. With incredible experience in building best-in-class consumer technology businesses, Bain Capital Venture's guidance will help us scale effectively."

Scott Friend of Bain Capital Ventures added, "At Bain Capital Ventures we have been investors in exciting, new, technology-enabled consumer products and retail business models for many years. We are passionate believers in the power of great entrepreneurs armed with superior data and technology to disrupt massive but antiquated markets by creating fundamentally better offerings for consumers. Katina and Liz follow in those footsteps, leveraging technology in a disruptive way to capitalize on the imbalance between time-starved working women and providers of personal care services like manicures. We are extremely impressed with the traction Manicube has created with its corporate partners and their employees in such a short period of time, and we're excited to be able to support the team's aggressive expansion nationwide."

About Manicube

Manicube's mission is to make the lives of working women easier by bringing 15 minute, high-quality manicures to busy professionals weekly at their corporate office, the first in-office service dedicated to the needs of the female consumer. Manicube is a venture-backed beauty technology company headquartered in New York City.

About Bain Capital Ventures

Bain Capital Ventures is the venture arm of Bain Capital. The firm has a long history of investing in new technology-enabled consumer products and retail business models including Rent the Runway, SurveyMonkey, 4moms, LinkedIn and the initial funding for Staples. Bain Capital Ventures manages approximately $2 billion of committed capital, has over 65 active portfolio companies and offices in Boston, New York, and Palo Alto. More information is available at www.baincapitalventures.com.

Contacts: Katina Mountanos, Manicube 917-771-5142; Elizabeth Whitman, Manicube, 917-880-0157

SOURCE Manicube