Founded in 2016, the Guangzhou-based Yatsen Holding Limited, which owns the unicorn makeup brand Perfect Diary as well as Little Ondine and Abby’s Choice, has filed for an initial public offering (IPO) with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to raise up to $100 million.

The Numbers:

• The company claims that its three brands had served 23.5 million customers in its DTC model.
• They have over 200 stores across over 90 cities in China.
• The business generated a net loss of 1.2 billion yuan ($170.4 million) in the nine months ended September 30, 2020, compared to a net income of 29.1 million yuan ($4.3 million) during the same period last year, as per the prospectus.
• The group is expected to keep a 10% stake in the brand.

The Funding:

• The company just completed a new fundraising round in September for an undisclosed amount of capital that values the company at $4 billion. Investors include Warburg Pincus, Carlyle Group, and Loyal Valley Capital, Chinese media outlet IPOZaozhidao reported, citing people close to the deal.
• In April 2020 Perfect Diary received a $100 million capital infusion valuing the business at $2 billion, led by New York-based Tiger Global Management, which also invested in Glossier last year, followed by Hopu Investment and Boyu Capital.
• A September 2019 funding round pushed the brand to unicorn status and was led by Gao Lian Capital and Sequoia China with participation by Chinese Culture.

According to Yatsen’s prospectus, which cites a CIC report, China’s beauty market is expected to grow by US$29.9 billion between 2019 and 2025, accounting for nearly 60% of the total growth of the global beauty market during the same period.