Augmented Reality App for Makeup Raises $25m Series A

Perfect Corp, maker of the hit augmented reality app YouCam Makeup, has raised a $25m Series A round led by China Creation Ventures and joined by Yuanta Asia Investment, Extol Capital and CyberLink Corp. Fast on the heels of the launch of their 3D Augmented Reality Engine, Perfect Corp intends to use the funds to support the development of additional tools for Artificial Intelligence and Augmented Reality features for their app suite.

YouCam Makeup already has baked in a number of highly accurate face mapping features that enable users to see how makeup and hairstyles would look on their face. These features as well as the large userbase has helped them to secure partnerships with 150 brands including Estee Lauder, Yves Saint Laurent, L’Oréal Paris, MAC Cosmetics, and Macy’s.

We’ve written before about how augmented reality apps may change the retail experience but this app takes another step with accurate lighting and representations of various proprietary products from their partners. With 100m downloads, it is clear that the market has a massive appetite for their functionality.

Earlier this month, Perfect corp launched their 3D augmented reality halloween costume collection featuring costume styles from celebrity makeup artists Kristofer Buckle and Robin Black and Instagram beauty influencers Vanessa Davis and Setareh Hosseini. What sets this offering apart from other similar augmented reality apps is the hyper-realism afforded by their AR engine. The engine tracks over 100 facial landmarks per second providing users with very accurate models of their face. This enables users to see how looks would appear in near to real life.

With the fast pace of change in AR, this augmented reality app is standing out with their investment in proprietary technology to improve their ability to track faces and draw overlays. In addition to the uses for makeup, the underlying technology will allow them a competitive edge against their competitors.