[ { "id": 25951, "name": "SOTERI SKIN", "slug": "soteri-skin", "former_names": [ "Soteri Skin" ], "small_logo_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/70f23edad640a01ae56118a8760b4f8c4666d922.png", "website": "https://soteriskin.com/", "all_locations": "San Francisco, CA, USA", "long_description": "Soteri Skin is D2C skincare for chronic skin conditions like eczema. We’re the only non-prescription product proven to provide long-lasting relief for the 30 million Americans who suffer from eczema.\r\n\r\nHow it works:\r\nSkin surface pH is constantly in flux, and many of your daily activities can throw it out of balance. People with chronic skin conditions such as eczema have a harder time regulating their skin's pH. \r\n\r\nSoteri's patented pH/LOCK™ locks skin in at a therapeutic pH for 12+ hours, which is shown to help break the cycle of skin sensitivity, whether you have eczema, psoriasis, or just a bad sunburn.\r\n\r\nOur formulations are aesthetically elegant (non-sticky, sit well under makeup, etc), safe for anyone to use, and don't require a prescription. Most people see skin health improvements within the first few weeks of application, even for tricky, chronic skin conditions like eczema and psoriasis.\r\n\r\nWith Soteri Skin, anyone can enjoy healthy, glowing, pH-enomenal skin!", "one_liner": "D2C Skincare for Eczema", "team_size": 2, "industry": "Consumer", "subindustry": "Consumer -> Home and Personal", "launched_at": 1643220442, "tags": [ "E-commerce", "Skincare" ], "tags_highlighted": [], "top_company": false, "isHiring": false, "nonprofit": false, "batch": "Winter 2022", "status": "Active", "industries": [ "Consumer", "Home and Personal" ], "regions": [ "United States of America", "America / Canada", "Remote", "Partly Remote" ], "stage": "Early", "app_video_public": false, "demo_day_video_public": false, "app_answers": [ { "question": "Describe what your company does in 50 characters or less.\n", "answer": "Medications and skincare for eczema" }, { "question": "What is your company going to make? Please describe your product and what it does or will do.\n", "answer": "Soteri provides steroid-free OTC medications and skincare products for people suffering from eczema. Our patent-pending formulation uniquely “locks in” the skin surface in a state that is therapeutic for eczema. No other eczema treatment combines healing and preventive capabilities without negative side effects. Our mission is to help people with chronic skin conditions rediscover the joy and confidence of having happy, healthy skin." } ], "question_answers": null, "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/soteri-skin", "api": "https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/winter-2022/soteri-skin.json", "year_founded": 2021, "city": "San Francisco", "country": "US", "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/company/73029618/", "x_url": "https://twitter.com/SoteriSkin", "fb_url": "https://www.instagram.com/soteriskin/", "cb_url": null, "github_url": null, "logo_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/70f23edad640a01ae56118a8760b4f8c4666d922.png", "app_video_url": null, "dday_video_url": null, "company_photos": [], "primary_partner": null, "founders": [ { "user_id": 844038, "full_name": "Rafal Pielak", "title": "Founder", "founder_bio": "My background is in product and business development. I received Ph.D. in Biomedical Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology from Harvard Medical School and went on to complete my postdoctoral fellowship at UC Berkeley. Later I worked for biopharma identifying business opportunities in the rare disease space. Before launching Soteri Skin, I spent 7 years leading a product innovation team at L'Oreal where I helped to launch and grow L'Oreal Tech Incubator in San Francisco.", "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/rafal-pielak-953704a/", "x_url": "", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/2a189d7ca91aaff1b2e1096b9101613571200589.jpg" } ], "jobs": [], "news": [], "launches": [] }, { "id": 32985, "name": "Lumeria", "slug": "lumeria", "former_names": [], "small_logo_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/5911b0640b4a7b63825ae466fa73c1fc1b24c0a3.png", "website": "https://lumeria.skin", "all_locations": "San Francisco, CA, USA", "long_description": "The Lumoscope is a multispectral camera that clips onto your phone and scans your skin at home with the same light used in clinics. You see what a mirror can't: a breakout days before it surfaces, and wrinkles changing over time. Our software then reads that history, connects flare-ups to causes you'd never suspect, and matches products to what your own data shows works. \r\n", "one_liner": "Oura Ring for Skin", "team_size": 3, "industry": "Healthcare", "subindustry": "Healthcare -> Consumer Health and Wellness", "launched_at": 1785008787, "tags": [ "Consumer Health Services", "Health Tech", "Health & Wellness", "Skincare", "AI" ], "tags_highlighted": [], "top_company": false, "isHiring": false, "nonprofit": false, "batch": "Summer 2026", "status": "Active", "industries": [ "Healthcare", "Consumer Health and Wellness" ], "regions": [ "United States of America", "America / Canada" ], "stage": "Early", "app_video_public": true, "demo_day_video_public": false, "app_answers": null, "question_answers": null, "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/lumeria", "api": "https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/summer-2026/lumeria.json", "year_founded": 2026, "city": "San Francisco", "country": "US", "linkedin_url": "https://linkedin.com/lumeriaskin", "x_url": "https://x.com/LumeriaSkin", "fb_url": "https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61591057680758", "cb_url": null, "github_url": null, "logo_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/5911b0640b4a7b63825ae466fa73c1fc1b24c0a3.png", "app_video_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/bf-public_profile/33043/app_video.mp4?X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Credential=ASIAQC4NIECAK2XLVAEC%2F20261020%2Fus-west-2%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20261020T022740Z&X-Amz-Expires=60&X-Amz-Security-Token=IQoJb3JpZ2luX2VjEHEaCXVzLXdlc3QtMiJFMEMCIAKxVeCuOoDsiv9OvW1mQ7mcS8gDT%2FRJKRw6KedW8MBiAh8pY6kF75O%2FWklLJYZpXjNpdv7D7g7DTGoNa63eX1RAKuUDCDoQABoMMDA2MjAxODExMDcyIgwvKBm%2Bb%2F8OodUhrswqwgODlPQnlHNviMegR2tgHBKcqrGQw%2BHtymSQ4Yp%2BHXvxgxZQmZdAto2k32TpvRz%2BVJE%2BqKCUOyrN3nF%2BYp8JTYAbk6GLOMZLQ8NNfzzBNWL8hlZzwhBWCB%2FK92gRfq%2BbLzMD4EZK5luTpQ73dNMYF5KWvVfVFb3JfvZdp6jebipH%2BOsZEvEVbPpI7RqhKxjIWCKuiisx5aGObeO7hsqRRnRVxOTbem6Emw3xwUMNtBgSeDAhJ584VF4e0rTl8AVT%2BPnpDr0OKvLbHZC2Ds%2F8AyDY6hIImlQE2UeauK%2B9ELmg6Yxp%2Fnz1kBNJ%2Fg2X9Jqi1JSLfvWbGkmuDAw89PFwEI0EfUUpXDyZbrY0b%2FSIPioJWPd5idMrJmtR9tYutaPns85TmjvYnh6TyjEksW1uIPi%2F%2FzTa2bGXAUVva1ybRBIV4TRnHjULbBAFlhE68zR2rLoypl%2BC0t0c1rrhWDfEV2%2BlqQRP38IJdPC5%2B32Q2eRMpzaalRIUh8mdZbHKmqaE2qczdAzfevEBI%2FtKPkLVhrYw2ND7bqysVVZRZYOE8rbkPsBRmpgp%2B7tz96eUMIbn3AaPWVW%2F1Au9bEDhTwoP1Kn6aTIw6P3a1gY6pwFIPtNtLcJWP8c793hYWjYfiWxa0eUSYLLcHApCHvGendn7NBYh6NUtrQ%2Fr4LAeOVtQUfme5Ilt3iCxJS%2FRGvvUbEz8jMx%2BOPIDNsEZvz5aI6VIlIz7els8agfAsUzZABhur3GtH9uqeXycsGWan43V8u0Ent37mQvBmvytxMaJCivuTGUjHlJquYXJoLnf%2BskSM1sq9omX%2Fxw7gT6pZpoO2xRdhnID%2FA%3D%3D&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Signature=08fa5e5f5f79daa4aa81e425c02757a4425d1a11221aba8c26991eb8008d510c", "dday_video_url": null, "company_photos": [], "primary_partner": { "name": "Tyler Bosmeny", "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/people/tyler-bosmeny" }, "founders": [ { "user_id": 3452622, "full_name": "Maryanne Alhallak", "title": "Founder/CEO", "founder_bio": "Founder & CEO at Lumeria. Prev. Founder of 7-time award winning biotech startup (exited in 1.5 years). Beauty & lifestyle influencer (26k+ followers, 10M+ views in 2 months). Published author at 9 years old with <3 years of English knowledge as Syrian Refugee. UC Berkeley BS Bioengineering + BA Economics admit at 15. Prev. strategy work @ Flex, Pfizer, & PBS. Wetlab + CompBio Researcher.", "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/maryanne-alhallak-33b250241", "x_url": "https://x.com/malhalla06", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/83313ba7c25e91eda4e8d5c5f8b36be5038fab4b.jpg" }, { "user_id": 3470868, "full_name": "Anthea Guo", "title": "Founder/CTO", "founder_bio": "Founder and CTO at Lumeria. Previously Team Lead at Google, leading a 6-person Berkeley collaboration on DeepVariant. Built HPC pipelines at Boehringer Ingelheim. Built Streamind's phone-based pulse capture pipeline. Co-founded Computational Biology @ Berkeley.", "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthea-guo", "x_url": "https://x.com/theantheaguo", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/afe4281df1b70d51d9f9230998c91ac9550130e9.jpg" } ], "jobs": [], "news": [ { "title": "From Berkeley to Y Combinator: Lumeria Founders Build the Oura Ring for Skin - UC Berkeley Sutardja Center", "url": "https://scet.berkeley.edu/from-berkeley-to-y-combinator-lumeria-founders-build-the-oura-ring-for-skin/", "date": "Jul 01, 2026" } ], "launches": [ { "id": 109979, "title": "Lumeria - What if there was an Oura Ring for Skin?", "tagline": "What if there was an Oura Ring for Skin?", "body": "# Lumeria is the Oura Ring for Skin:\n\nTLDR: Lumeria is the Oura Ring for Skin: the Lumoscope clips onto your phone, scans your skin with the same multispectral light used in clinics, and Lumi, your AI skin coach, reads that history to personalize recommendations for you, so your routine is built on your data instead of someone else's.\n\nPreorders are open at the $199 founding price until **August 16. After that, the price only goes up**.  \n\n\n\n## ❌ The problem\n\nAnthea’s sister spent eight years chasing her eczema.\n\nThe cause turned out to be dust in the carpet.\n\nNo one caught it because no one was recording anything. Her skin was reacting to her sleep, her home, her products, the air around her, and none of it existed as data. Every dermatologist that took months to see started from zero. Every product she tried was a guess.\n\nThat is the **$190B** skincare industry in one story. It runs on guessing.\n\nLumeria ends that: it captures the missing data layer that gives you the power to understand and own your skin's health data, from home.\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=109979&key=user_uploads/3470868/08058377-6a96-414b-b03e-44ff36f8622a)\n\n## 🔬 How it works\n\nThe Lumoscope shrinks the multi-spectrum imaging dermatology clinics use into a clip for your phone. Press it against your skin and see yourself in three kinds of light: true color (RGB), UV, and cross-polarized.\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=109979&key=user_uploads/3470868/76776eef-52f9-4416-827c-36c74760f8dd)\n\nFor the first time, you see what your mirror can't: a breakout building days before it surfaces, sun damage hiding under flawless-looking skin, where inflammation is building up.\n\nEach scan becomes an objective read (hydration, redness, evenness, pigmentation, texture, pores) plus a score out of 100 and a skin age, so you can understand your progress.\n\nTrack them over time, and Lumi tells you exactly what to do. \n\n* It finds the cause, linking your breakouts to habits you'd never think of, from your sleep to your cycle to the pillowcase you forgot to wash. \n* It recommends products from a database of 18000+ products + ingredients, matched to what your scans actually show works.\n* It hands your dermatologist 90 days of images, trends, and context in one tap.\n* And it compounds: every scan adds to a history and increased understanding of your skin’s relevant context.\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=109979&key=user_uploads/3470868/c36570ca-4042-47bc-beb4-5f1a27014d6a)\n\n It works across every skin tone. It is private and encrypted by default. \n\n## 👥 Why we built this\n\nAnthea, our CTO, lived with this problem: suffering from eczema that would not heal, five months to reach a dermatologist, four misdiagnoses. She is an engineer who worked on computational biology at Google and Boehringer Ingelheim. Maryanne, our CEO, is a skincare creator with 25M+ views across her UGC portfolio, exited her first biotech company by 19, and still could not explain her own breakouts until Lumeria. We understand the helplessness people feel with their skin, so we built what was needed.\n\nWe are patent pending, shipping in Fall 2026, and built on 150+ interviews and 2 clinical partnerships with dermatologists and patients.\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=109979&key=user_uploads/3470868/d7da4795-da8c-4edd-8c96-58e540656067)\n\n## 🚀 Why preorder right now\n\nThis is the best moment there will ever be to own a Lumoscope:\n\n* **$199 until August 16.** The founding price is the lowest it will ever be, and it will go up to 329 otherwise. \n* **Founding preorders are first in line.** Units ship Sep - Oct 2026, ahead of general release.\n* **3 months of Premium free** plus a 30-day money-back guarantee.\n* **Founding member, not a ticket number:** a direct line to us and a real say in what we build next.\n* **Your skin data compounds from day one:** the earlier you set your baseline, the sooner your recommendations are built on your skin instead of averages.\n\nPreorder now at \n\nSee what Lumi has to say about your skin, and own your skin’s story today. ☀️\n\n💛 Reach out to us: [maryanne@lumeria.skin](mailto:maryanne@lumeria.skin) & [anthea@lumeria.skin](mailto:anthea@lumeria.skin)", "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/Sbr-lumeria-what-if-there-was-an-oura-ring-for-skin", "votes": 26, "created_at": "2026-08-12T14:00:00.255Z" } ] } ]