Close

Focallure, SEA's most selling Chinese makeup brand, secures 8-digit funding

September 22, 2021 6:49 pm

Fast-makeup retailer Focallure banked tens of millions USD in a recent fundraising round. Founded in 2016, the Guangzhou-based company plans to use proceeds on supply chain and factory building, team recruiting and building R&D, and brand promoting.

Details:

Focallure is the current most selling makeup brand in Southeast Asia, Russian, and Bangladesh, according to 36kr. Focallure aims to become "the next L'Oreal in emerging markets", by serving mainstream needs in emerging markets and emerging needs in mainstream markets.

By catering to regional markets' specific needs, such as sweat-proof products for Southeast Asian consumers, Focallure was able to grab a position in emerging markets early on and expand back to its home base, China, later. The company creates a brand matrix to better adapt to each market, exemplified by 12Gardens, its sister makeup brand featuring traditional Chinese cultural concepts for Chinese consumers.

Focallure describes itself as a data-driven company, emphasizing its consumer-to-manufacturer (C2M) model.

With its R&D center and 6 factories in Guangzhou, Focallure benefits from the smooth and speedy manufacturing process. Focallure reacts to recent fashion and makeup trends from consumer data quickly — they can pinpoint their target consumer's needs, then design, manufacture, and distribute products that are tailor-made for those needs. The company's makeup products' life cycle is 3-6 months on average.

Context:

Focallure's success largely attributes to the C2M model. The model, which heavily relies on big data and manufacturing speed — two things China excels at—has gained momentum in China's e-commerce landscape by largely improving supply chain efficiency.

E-commerce giants like Alibaba and JD.com have long been exploring the C2M model. Last year, Alibaba launched a "super factory" program to help 1000 industries build 'super' factories that can be directly connected to customers.

JD.com launched its fashion technology research institute in 2018, dedicated to the research and application of big data.

By utilizing big data and manufacturing force, china's e-commerce scene is turning from mass production to mass customization. Now brands like Focallure are taking advantage of C2M in overseas markets.