Genius AI has secured $44 million in Series D funding, pushing its valuation to $1.15 billion and officially joining the unicorn club. The investment round was led by Lux Capital, with support from Bessemer Venture Partners, Imaginary Ventures, L Catterton Growth, 2048 Ventures, StepStone Private Ventures, and other existing investors. Since launching in 2016, the company has now raised more than $125 million.
The company was previously known as GlossGenius but has now changed its name to Genius AI as it expands beyond beauty and wellness. Its platform is being developed to serve a wider range of in-person service businesses, helping owners manage their daily operations more efficiently.
Genius AI was founded by identical twin sisters Danielle Cohen-Shohet and Leah Cohen-Shohet. The pair graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University before beginning their careers as analysts at Goldman Sachs. Danielle later left finance after recognizing a common challenge while working as a freelance makeup artist. She noticed that many beauty professionals spent too much time handling bookings, payments, and customer communication instead of focusing on their work. She taught herself software development and built the first version of the platform to solve those problems.
Today, more than 125,000 businesses use Genius AI across nearly half of all ZIP codes in the United States. According to the company, its platform has helped customers save around 112 million hours of administrative work, generate more than $2 billion in additional revenue, and manage over 624 million customer interactions. The business is also approaching an annual revenue run rate of nearly $200 million.
The company's latest move marks a shift from offering business management software to creating tools that can complete routine business tasks with less manual effort. Instead of only helping owners organize their work, the platform aims to handle many time-consuming processes automatically, allowing business owners to spend more time with their customers.
Genius AI believes there are around 8 million in-person service businesses worldwide, representing more than $2 trillion in annual consumer spending. The company sees this market as one of the biggest opportunities for modern business technology because many service providers still rely on manual processes.
"We believe technology in our space will do the opposite of what people fear: not flatten human craft into automation, but free people to be more present, more expressive, and more connected to the people they serve," said Danielle Cohen-Shohet.
The investment also highlights Lux Capital's confidence in the company's long-term plans. Known for backing technology and science-focused businesses, Lux recently closed its largest investment fund at $1.5 billion. Existing investor Bessemer Venture Partners also continued its support, reflecting ongoing confidence in Genius AI's growth strategy.
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