Hong Kong-based social shopping service Goxip has raised $5 million to branch out into influencer marketing and expand in Southeast Asia. The investment was led by Meitu, the $6 billion developer of selfie apps, with participation from Hong Kong conglomerate Nan Fung Group via its inaugural Mills Fabrica Fund.

WHO: Goxip is an online marketplace for fashion and beauty products, with offices in Hong Kong and Malaysia. The shopping platform combines products from different online retailers, targeting fashion/beauty lovers, influencers, and bloggers. With Goxip’s product/brand recognition technology, consumers can purchase similar apparel worn by celebrities or key opinion leaders, and make recommendations to friends. The company has partnered with more than 500 international online retailers, and has over 36,000 luxury brands and five million pieces of merchandise in its database.

Meitu was launched in 2008 by founders Xinhong Wu and Wensheng Cai. Meitu is China’s number-one photo-editing app, describing itself as the ultimate photo toolkit in one easy-to-use app. Instagram and Snapchat have allowed people to apply perfecting filters, but Meitu takes filters to a whole other level. The company has built a suite of apps including MeituPic, Meipai, SelfieCity, BeautyCam, BeautyPlus, Airbrush, and MakeupPlus that are installed on more than 1 billion unique devices, and growing by more than 200 million new activations every day. In 2016 Meitu raised $629 million in an IPO in Hong Kong. Last year Meitu rolled out e-commerce platform MeituBeauty specializing in cosmetics and skincare, which allows shoppers to try out the products by uploading their selfie.

WHY: The funds will be used to develop Goxip’s proprietary rewardSnap ad system and expand into new markets in Southeast Asia. For Meitu the Goxip investment is expected to accelerate their overseas expansion.

IN THEIR OWN WORDS: “Meitu will be a strategic partner,” Juliette Gimenez, CEO and co-founder at Goxip, told The Nikkei. In addition to the investment, the two companies would cooperate in various ways, including on Goxip’s expansion in the lucrative mainland China market, she said.

“We will not comment on one single project,” Meitu’s spokesperson (they were not named) told the Nikkei Asian Review. However, she added: “Meitu’s investment strategy has always been revolving around new technology, beauty and user growth.”

Vanessa Cheung, founder of The Mills, told e27, “The establishment of The Mills Fabrica Fund has enabled us to provide more support to startups in the global techstyle to further their growth. We believe Goxip has great potential for global expansion and changing the fashion retail model, and we hope that more techstyle entrepreneurs will continue to inspire other startups in the community, especially in Hong Kong.”

DETAILS:

• The investment was led by Meitu with participation from Hong Kong conglomerate Nan Fung Group via its inaugural Mills Fabrica Fund.
• According to Tech Crunch, a trio of young wealthy female investors also participated. Chryseis Tan, an existing investor who is the daughter of Malaysian billionaire Vincent Tan; Sabrina Ho, the daughter of Macau-based casino magnate Stanley Ho; and Iman Allana, from Indian multibillion dollar food giant Allana Group.
• Nan Fung Group’s Mills Fabrica Fund contributed to this round with US$1 million.
• The winner of RISE 2015, Goxip had earlier raised US$1.6 million in seed funding from Southeast Asia-based VC fund Ardent Capital.
• Recently Meitu also acquired a stake in Hong Kong-based media company PressLogic, a data and technologies company that includes machine learning to better target advertising on social media.

Read more in Asia Nikkei.