Taiwanese startups you should know about: Part 6

In the last in our Taiwanese startup series, we cast an eye over Perfect Corp, which uses augmented reality to take the hassle out of shopping for cosmetics.

Taipei-based Perfect Corp has lived up to its name — at least as far as the world's fashionistas are concerned. The company bills itself as a market leader in augmented reality apps for cosmetics and beauty — boasting some 600 million downloads from the  IOS and Android App stores.

For co-founders Jau Huang and Alice Chang, it's a second taste of startup success and builds on their achievements with Cyberlink, a Taiwan-listed multimedia software company specialising in video and photo editing, as well as playback media. Huang remains chairman of Cyberlink while Chang is its CEO, and the pair utilised Cyberlink technology to create Perfect.

Launched as a separate business, Perfect Corp uses AR and cutting edge artificial inteliigence to link online shoppers with over 150 leading beauty and cosmetic brands to solve the decision dilemma between “Try on” and “Purchase”.

"As a leader in the AR beauty industry, we continue to harness the power of AI technologies and deep learning to revolutionise the customer beauty journey," Chang said upon reqaching the landmark 600 million downloads.

With 60 million unique users per month, the majority of revenue is generated from brand sponsorship in the company's four YouCam apps, with further growth provided through so-called virtual mirrors in high-end fashion stores globally.

Users of the apps can experiment with over 42,000 beauty and cosmetic products from the comfort of their own home, without having to physically visit a shop or risk purchasing blind.

Funded in 2017 with the help of $25 million from round A investors China Creation Ventures and Cyberlink, the company now has an office in San Jose, California, as well as its Taipei headquarters.

The next big hurdle for the company will be to increase its footprint in the China market, a move that could significantly boost its $20 million 2018 revenue estimate.

¬ Haymarket Media Limited. All rights reserved.
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