CyberAgent Ventures invests in Taiwan’s FashionGuide, a beauty and cosmetics social network

Japanese investment firm CyberAgent Ventures has invested an undisclosed amount in FashionGuide, a fashion social network from Taiwan, reported TheNextWeb this week.

Launched in 1997, FashionGuide enables users to post their own reviews of cosmetics products, which turns the website into a top destination in the country for crowdsourced reviews in its category.

Catherine Chang, investment manager at CyberAgent Ventures Taiwan, said that the site sees “millions” of unique visits each month. Alexa’s web ranking puts it as the country’s 125th most popular site. Read more

Subscription commerce service Bellabox raises USD1.4M series A round

Australia’s Bellabox announced today that it has raised a USD 1.4M (AUD 1.3M) series A round, led by Lance Kalish, co-founder of skincare brand Yes To Carrots and Elevation Capital director Trevor Folsom.

Monash Private Capital, SquarePeg Ventures, Apex Capital Partners and other investors participated in this round. Monash Private Capital also assisted with transaction structuring and negotiations.  Read more

As Rocket Internet’s Glossybox retreats from parts of Asia, VanityTrove and others spot an opening

Glossybox, a beauty box clone by Rocket Internet, is by many metrics a wild success. The subscription commerce company recently revealed that it had shipped 2 million boxes to customers in its first 1.5 years of operations. To date, it has raised USD 72.3M from Holtzbrinck Ventures, Kinnevik and Rocket Internet itself.

Two million boxes is a whole lot of revenue. Here’s a back-of-the-envelope calculation: Assuming every subscriber has signed up for Glossybox’s recurring 3-month package for one year — the company would easily pocket an annual revenue of about USD 26M.

	What is subscription commerce?
	A new e-commerce model where consumers typically pay subscription fees to have products sent to their doorsteps on a regular basis.

There are a couple of catches though. First, we don’t know what Glossybox’s global operating costs and profits are. It could be that the venture is in the red since it would have pumped tons of money into global expansion just to get to its market-leading position.

Second, Glossybox has had some missteps. Namely, it entered Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Australia, only to withdraw after realizing the markets aren’t as plump as it thought they would be. Apparently, the Samwer Brothers are capable of misjudgments.  Read more

In Asia, beauty box companies are the next Clone Rush

As the daily deals fever dies down, entrepreneurs in Asia have been on the lookout on the next big idea. It looks like they have found it. In the region, a new crop of startups have arisen, all centered around a singular concept: Beauty boxes.

The idea sounds simple. Subscribers, who are mostly young women, pay a monthly fee to have a box of cosmetics samples delivered to them on a regular basis. Beauty brands have been freely giving out sample products, so why not mail them to potential customers instead?

The market opportunity is there: Outside of China and India, the Asia-Pacific cosmetics market is valued at USD45.7B. The business model is proven: In the United States, Birchbox, which launched in 2010, has surpassed the 100,000 subscriber mark for its women’s boxes. It may have even reached 200,000. The company is popular with investors too: It raised a series A round of USD10.5M.

The concept soon spread to Europe and finally to Asia. Rocket Internet launched its clone Glossybox in March 2011 and now has a presence in 19 countries, including Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and China. Other prominent players are coming up in the region too, and they’re getting a lot of customers. Read more

Wavemaker Labs makes first investment, splashes USD 592,000 on cosmetics store Luxola.com

Wavemaker Labs, a Singapore-based investment firm, together with the National Research Foundation (NRF), has invested over SGD 740,000 (USD 592,000) in Luxola.com, an online cosmetics and skincare store, which is also based in the same country. This is Wavemaker Labs’ first investment.

“We are thrilled to have received this funding which will help us expand into new markets while at the same time maintaining our focus on superior customer service and brand alignment,” said Luxola’s founder and CEO Alexis Horowitz-Burdick. Read more