Beauty Noted, a crowdsourced platform that powers cosmetics recommendations has hired industry veteran Kate Thorp as President and CEO to lead the new social beauty venture. In addition, Beauty Noted has secured $2.2 million in seed funding, led by Kortschak Investments, with participation from IDG Ventures and Crosslink Capital.

'We are thrilled to have Kate join Beauty Noted. Her overall expertise in consumer digital services, marketing, and leadership will be instrumental in our success,' offered Walter Kortschak. 'The company's approach to social sharing, consumer reviews, and commerce, along with its talented management team, will combine to capture a leadership position in the lucrative Beauty market,' said David Silverman, Crosslink Capital.

Kate Thorp joins Beauty Noted following a number of key board positions including LBi and Mobiles Republic, and the acquisition of her most recent company Real Girls Media, by Meredith Corp. She served as CEO after founding the online social content hub for women in 2006. Kate has had outstanding success creating and guiding leading companies in executive roles including President of Global Advertising at AKQA, Chairman and Chief Marketing Officer of Carat Interactive, which acquired the agency she founded and ran as Chief Executive Officer, Lot21.

'It's an exciting time to be working in Beauty, even more exciting online. The opportunities are vast when it comes to beauty services, products, social sharing, and personalized recommendations,' Says Kate Thorp. 'Having worked with founder Sarah Kortschak over the last year, I can honestly say Beauty Noted is on its way to creating something special for our members. It's a real pleasure to help women look and feel their best.'

Founded in 2012 by USC student, Sarah Kortschak, Beauty Noted leverages members' favorite products and individual preferences to provide personal product recommendations. The company recently released in Beta while planning a full release later this year. Kate Thorp has also been appointed to Beauty Noted's Board of Directors.

About Beauty Noted
Beauty Noted provides product recommendations from a proprietary crowdsourcing platform that matches users against a group of women who share like characteristics and preferences. Then it factors in products you make a Note of delivering personalized recommendations unique to each woman. The site enables women to discover, share, and purchase the best products for them.

Headquartered in Sausalito, Beauty Noted was founded by Sarah Kortschak, a student at the University of Southern California, who wanted to use technology and the power of the social crowd to help women discover the best products for them. For more information or to sign up, visit www.beautynoted.com.

About Kortschak Investments
Kortschak Investments (KILP) invests in promising start-up and growth stage companies and is the principal investment vehicle for WMAS Management, a diversified investment holding company managed by venture capitalist, Walter Kortschak. KILP's portfolio includes companies such as ServiceMesh (acquired by CSC), The Trade Desk, Main Street Hub and MomentFeed. Kortschak is also a senior advisor and former managing partner of Summit Partners, a private equity and venture capital firm. He has served as a director of more than 50 companies, including 20 public companies. Highlights of his career include backing McAfee as a 3-person start-up in 1991, which went public and was then sold in 2010 to Intel for $7.7 billion and investing in E-TEK Dynamics, a pioneer in optical networking in 1997, which grew to over $1 billion in revenue and was sold for $19 billion to JDS Uniphase. For more information on Kortschak Investments, visit http://www.wmasgroup.com.

About IDG Ventures
IDG Ventures USA invests in consumer internet and enterprise IT companies in the US. The firm is part of a IDG Ventures, a global network of technology venture funds with approximately $3.7 billion under management and over 200 active portfolio companies in Asia and North America. IDG Ventures works closely with International Data Group (IDG), the world's largest IT media company. By combining the IDG platform-an unparalleled combination of global publishing, market research, and conference and exhibition resources-with years of hands-on experience in early-stage company building, IDG Ventures helps its portfolio companies understand their markets better and penetrate them faster than their competition. Leading technology companies that IDG has backed include BabyCenter, Epiphany, Excite, F5 Networks, Funzio, Infoseek, Minted, Netscape, and Spinner.com in the US and Baidu, Ctrip, Focus Media, Sina, SouFun, Tencent, Tudou, Vancl and Vinagames in Asia. For more information on IDG Ventures, visit http://www.idgvusa.com.

About Crosslink Capital
Crosslink Capital believes the best way to predict the future is to create it. Crosslink is a leading stage-independent venture capital and growth equity firm that invests in digital media & Internet services, software and business services, communications services & infrastructure, and computing. The firm was one of the first and largest in the U.S. to integrate public and private growth/technology investing and maintains an active seed fund - a strategy that allows Crosslink to develop early, long-term partnerships with its portfolio companies and offer entrepreneurs a true landscape perspective on their industries. Crosslink Capital's portfolio includes companies such as Pandora (P), Ancestry.com, Omniture (acquired by Adobe Systems), Equinix (EQIX), Carbonite (CARB), SeaMicro (acquired by Advanced Micro Devices), Intematix, DataStax, Flurry, Marin Software and Bleacher Report (acquired by Time Warner, Inc.). For more information on Crosslink, visit http://www.crosslinkcapital.com.