A Boise startup that hopes to change the way people do their makeup just hit a key milestone.

BoldHue brought in $1 million in funding during its so-called pre-seed round. The pre-seed round is usually used to help business concepts get rolling.

Rachel Wilson, who co-founded BoldHue with Karin Layton, told BoiseDev that the round was oversubscribed, meaning they had more investor interest than they planned to be able to take in this early stage. ‘Shake, apply and go:’ Boise startup gets patent on at-home makeup system that’s like Keurig for beauty

“I am so thrilled that we will be able to move along in our milestones and get that much closer to bringing BoldHue to market,” Wilson said.

As BoiseDev reported earlier this summer, BoldHue hopes to further develop and market a device and product to help custom match makeup products to a customer’s exact skin type.

Here’s how it works: A customer buys the countertop device, akin to a Keurig. It comes with a wand, and the user scans their skin tone, which transmits to the larger device. Within a minute, it reads the skin type, considers personal preference, and dispenses enough foundation for about a week. Think of an inkjet printer, but instead of graphics on a page, it mixes the foundation. From there, the customer applies the foundation to their skin.

Wilson told BoiseDev that after foundation, the company hopes to move on to lipstick, eye shadow, and other elements.

Tech and other business startups that look to raise capital often follow a number of funding rounds.  Sometimes, the process starts with “pre-seed funding,” which is enough money to get the business going. Seed funding is the first formal round and starts to formalize the business. Some businesses never progress past seed funding. Next, follows Series A, Series B and Series C.  A-round funding usually starts once a business has a bit of a track record and provides money to grow the business and develop out products or concepts. B-rounds help businesses start to grow to maturity, past that initial startup phase. Series C funding usually goes into businesses that are already a success, and helps the business grow and scale-up.

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