Perfect Corp., developer of virtual beauty app YouCam Makeup, closes $50 million Series C led by Goldman Sachs

Spending on cosmetics has usually weathered economic crises, but that changed during the COVID-19 pandemic, with stay-at-home orders and masks tempering people’s desire to wear makeup.
Virtual beauty try-on technology, like the ones developed by Perfect Corp., will play an important role in this shift to digital.
The company announced today it has raised a Series C of $50 million led by Goldman Sachs.

YouCam Makeup now counts about 40 million to 50 million monthly active users and has expanded from augmented selfies to include livestreams and tutorials from beauty influencers, social features and a “Skin Score” feature.
In a press statement, Xinyi Feng, a managing director in the Merchant Banking Division of Goldman Sachs, said, “The integration of technology through artificial intelligence, machine learning and augmented reality into the beauty industry will unlock significant advantages, including amplification of digital sales channels, increased personalization and deeper consumer engagement.”
“Depending on the geography of the brand, in the past probably only 10%, no more than 20%, of their business was direct to consumer, while 80% was going through retail distribution and distribution partnerships, the network they already built over the year,” said Chen. But beauty companies are investing more heavily in e-commerce now, and Perfect Corp. capitalizes on that by offering its technology as a SaaS.

感じたこと（女目線(笑)）

・化粧をしなくてもいい時代はくるのかしら？
→でも逆に、ARをとってすっぴんを見る技術みたいなものを変態な男どもが開発しそうで怖いわｗｗ

・大学の授業は画面オフでほとんど受けれる反面急に画面をつけなくてはいけない場合、準備できていないということは避けたいのよ
だから、結局化粧はほとんど毎日しないといけないのよね。たしかに、ARが進んでいくとそういうのしなくていいのかもしれないけど
まだまだ加工であることがわかってしまうため、オフィシャルな場所でAR化粧を導入するのは社会倫理的にも認められていないのが現状かしら

・AR化粧のSaaSは寡占市場を生み出しそうね。