Chinese cosmetics player Meishang raises $28m

Additional contributions came from Sinovation Ventures, CEC Capital, and Welight Capital. The company previously received angel funding from Sequoia Capital China and Suqian Tianqiang, a  venture capital firm backed by Richard Liu, founder of JD.com.

Founded in 2018, Meishang sells products under the Colorkey brand within China. It also owns Superface in Korea and Lab101 in Taiwan. Colorkey launched a store on Alibaba Group's Tmall platform in 2018 and recorded RMB200 million in sales in its first 12 months. Its lip stain is a consistent top seller. Colorkey ranked among the top five domestic cosmetics brands in China's November 11 Single's Day shopping festival last year, with sales of RMB27.8 million.

Colorkey is now available across the major online platforms including Tmall, JD.com, and Yunji. It has also launched offline distribution channels covering 11 cities. Cici Lee, the founder of Meishang, said in a statement that the company wants to leverage its established marketing and distribution channels to promote Superface and Lab101 in mainland China.

“Meishang is expanding its leading position in the lip stain category to other brands and categories. Thanks to its excellent executive capabilities, the company can deliver great results in long-term development,” added Xiaona Feng, an executive director at Sinovation.

Other private equity and venture capital exposure to China's cosmetics space includes Perfect Diary, which recently raised $100 million. Other investors have focused on proxies rather than brands. For example, CITIC Capital acquired Hangzhou UCO Cosmetics, a digital marketing and e-commerce services provider specializing in beauty and personal care.

• Tweet  
• Facebook  
• LinkedIn  
• Google plus  
• Save this article  
• Send to  

• Topics
• Greater China
• Consumer
• China
• e-commerce
• Sinovation Ventures