Foundation Brand FUNNY ELVES Completes Tens-millions Funding
- Chaileedo Press
- Jun 14, 2022
- 3 min read
Abstract: Chinese beauty brand FUNNY ELVES officially announced that it has completed tens of millions of Series A financing, led by Winona's parent company BTN Group and followed by EdgeVentures. It is reported that as of this investment, there are more than ten Chinese and foreign investment institutions had contact with FUNNYELVES. Its founder and CEO Yang Ju said, "BTN Group as a Chinese efficacious skincare head company is worth learning from the industry predecessors, the two sides in product development, business strategy and other aspects of the concept fit are the key to make this cooperation."
For this financing, FUNNY ELVES CEO revealed: "The funds from the new round of financing will be invested in product upgrade, offline channel construction, team expansion, etc. In 2022, FUNNY ELVES will target the current hot selling powder and our foundation series products will be fully upgraded from the packaging to the use sense of foundation from the user experience perspective. The product value will be put into practice."
According to CHAILEEDO, FUNNY ELVES officially launched its first foundation product, Asian Edition Foundation Artist, in September 2020. The "Fang" in the brand Chinese name means "formula" and "Li" means "skin tone". The brand is dedicated to developing the skin-care foundation for Asian skin types and skin tones.
Focusing on foundation products, FUNNY ELVES made research on differences based on Chinese users' skin texture and Caucasian skin texture and construction the Asian skin texture database. In November 2021, FUNNY ELVES released the "Asian Skin White Paper" which helps consumers to recognize the differences between Asian and European, and American skin types and break the misconceptions so as to have accurate skin care. It is worth noting that this is the first white paper on Asian skin types in China's cosmetic industry.
Compared to color cosmetics, the foundation has a higher barrier of entry. Therefore, at the level of R&D, the brand also joined hands with a team of American scientists to create a joint venture, FUNNY ELVES American Skin Bionic Laboratory. The team of FUNNY ELVES is responsible for the in-depth research of users' foundation needs and the differences in skin quality of various groups of people to propose the improvement direction of raw materials and formulations. The FUNNY ELVES American Skin Bionic Laboratory is responsible for the development of new ingredients and high-quality formulations based on the data from the brand team.
During the three-year-long cooperation and development process, two influential figures in the global beauty research and development community also participated in building as partners of FUNNY ELVES Skin Bionic Laboratory - Harvey Gedeon, the former CTO of Estee Lauder, was responsible for the research and development of classic products such as SK II, La Mer and Estee Lauder Advanced Night Repair. Another person Tian was also the founder of the L'Onvie Group, and has served as Estee Lauder's global deputy director of R&D, product development manager at Revlon, and senior scientist at P&G.
Currently, Funny Elves focuses on the foundation category with its main products being compact foundation and liquid foundation. Among them, the foundation is mainly from the three dimensions of makeup needs: skin type and skin tone to launch the foundation. With the insight that domestic consumers are looking for matte and soft focus makeup, the brand focuses on developing products with matte makeup effects.
In terms of formulation, the brand insists on not adding paraben preservatives, heavy metals, mineral oil, and other ingredients harmful to the skin, and uses biodegradable and recyclable special paper, which is also in line with the direction of "Clean Beauty".
In 2021, FUNNY ELVES's online sales exceeded $29.7 million in one year with a year-on-year revenue growth of 1300%. Cumulative sales of its star product, the Asian Edition Foundation Artist, exceeded 3 million units, while the five-shade powder and makeup foundation also achieved rapid growth. In addition, the brand also launched the "Skin Formula" carousel to help consumers choose their own products, so they can match their skin condition (needs of skin type/concealer) to the right products. The products are priced between $14.85-$29.7.
Currently, FUNNY ELVES enjoys three types of compact foundation, three types of foundations, and beauty tools such as powder puffs and eyebrow pencils for sale in its Tmall flagship store. It is reported that FUNNY ELVES, which is deeply involved in the field of foundation, may enter the field of perfume. Recently, on its Chinese social platform WeChat public account, it posted that it would launch the first FUNNY ELVES perfume, the specific price and product specifications have not yet been announced.
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