Oyster is the intelligence layer underneath the beauty industry. Built on pioneering skin science, trained on the largest melanin-rich dataset in commercial AI, and powered by a team that believes skincare should be measured, not guessed.
For too long, the industry built to care for it has run on guesswork.
A customer walks into a pharmacy and picks a moisturiser because the packaging feels right. A quiz asks her to describe her skin type and she guesses "combination"because she does not know what else to say. A therapist assesses her skin in the first ten minutes of a session using nothing but their eyes and experience.
None of this is measurement. It is approximation. And the cost is real: wrong products, wasted money, eroded confidence, lost customers, and an industry that knows what sold but has no idea what anyone's skin actually needed.
We looked at that and saw an infrastructure problem. Not a skincare problem. An engineering problem.
Oyster's Skin Intelligence Engine captures a sequence of images from a standard smartphone camera and extracts 15 dermatological biomarkers using enhanced photon manipulation and proprietary computer vision. No dermatoscope. No controlled lighting. No app download. A $150 Android phone in Lagos and the latest iPhone in Seoul produce the same structured skin profile.
We trained the model on 2M+ clinical images sourced from government healthcare programmes across seven African markets. Melanin-rich skin is not a secondary training class. It is the primary dataset. This data was built over years of clinical partnerships. It is not licensable. It grows with every scan.
On top of the scan, we built the full operating system: product intelligence that ranks a retailer's entire catalogue by biological skin match. A clinic OS that replaces the intake form with an objective baseline. A Smart Restock engine that knows when a customer's product is running out. Voice agents that handle skin consultations at any hour. Every module feeds data to every other module. Every scan makes the whole system smarter.
Deployed across pharmacies, retailers, clinics, and brands in Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Ghana, Rwanda, Morocco, and South Korea. 200,000+ scans processed. 75% of people who complete a scan purchase a product.
Clinical training images
skin scan processed
Scan-to-purchase conversion
Countries deployed
Most computer vision models were trained on European and American dermatological databases. Fitzpatrick I – III. Lighter skin. Conditions that present differently on darker skin are underrepresented or absent entirely.
Hyperpigmentation on Fitzpatrick V skin does not look like hyperpigmentation on Fitzpatrick II skin. Erythema on melanin-rich skin is not visible as redness. Post-inflammatory marks follow different recovery trajectories. General-purpose models miss this.
We started with the skin tones the industry overlooked because that is where the accuracy gap was widest and the market need was deepest. Africa is home to the fastest-growing beauty consumers on earth. We built for them first. The model expanded to full Fitzpatrick spectrum from that foundation.
98.9% measured accuracy on Fitzpatrick IV–VI skin tones. That number is the reason partners trust us with their customers.
Our mission is to build the intelligence layer of the beauty industry. To make skincare measurable, personal, and trusted. For every skin tone. For every business that serves them.
OWNERSHIP
We are all founders. Fix what is broken. Build what is missing. If the answer does not exist, go find it. Ownership here does not mean control. It means care.
YES TO IMPACT
Work on what matters. Kill what does not. Even good ideas. Focus is not about saying yes. It is about saying yes to the right thing.
SPEED WITH PURPOSE
Move fast. Think clearly. Ship smart. We launch small. We learn quickly. We ship again. The best products come from fast cycles and sharp minds. Not perfect roadmaps.
TRUST AND TRUTH
Be honest, direct, and kind. Critique the work, not the person. Default to trust, not suspicion. Trust is oxygen. Truth is how we breathe.
EMPATHY FOR THE USER
Listen. Care. Design for real people. We do not build features. We solve problems. We talk to users. We walk in their shoes. If the user wins, we win.
RELENTLESS CURIOSITY
Keep asking why. Then ask why again. We do not assume the obvious is obvious. We test. We break things. We rewire them better. The right answer lives inside the right question.
Contact us if you have any other questions.
A Delaware-incorporated AI infrastructure company. We build the operating system for beauty commerce across seven markets.
We trained our computer vision on 2M+ clinical images from African healthcare programmes. Melanin-rich skin is our primary dataset, not an afterthought. 98.9% measured accuracy on Fitzpatrick IV–VI skin tones.
Pharmacies, retailers, clinics, and brands in Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Ghana, Rwanda, Morocco, and South Korea. 200,000+ scans processed.
No. Oyster is infrastructure for businesses. Our APIs, widgets, and SDKs power skin intelligence inside the products our partners already operate.
Not customers. Partners. Businesses that believe their customers deserve better than guesswork.
Skin Analysis & Product Recommendations
Clinic OS
Analytics & Intelligence
Voice Agents
Pharmacies & Dispensaries
Beauty Retailers
Brands & Manufacturers
API Documentation
Widget Documentation
SDK Documentation
Evaluation Portal
