Efficacy skincare brand "Shiyan" has raised nearly 100 million RMB in a Series A round led by Gaorong Ventures.

PUskinology, an emerging Chinese skincare brand focused on "efficacy-driven" products, recently closed a nearly 100 million yuan Series A round led by Gaorong Ventures, with Tiantu Capital participating. The funding will go toward brand building, product line expansion, and supply chain optimization.

Founded in 2021, PUskinology entered the market through a niche segment within skincare — "efficacy skincare" — with an emphasis on novel process innovation. According to data from the 2020 Consumer Insights on Efficacy Skincare Products, between October 2019 and September 2020, the efficacy skincare market on Taobao and Tmall alone reached 79.6 billion yuan, accounting for 66% of the total skincare market.

PUskinology's founder, Xiaopu, holds a master's degree in pharmaceutics from Fudan University's School of Pharmacy and previously worked as a formulator at Johnson & Johnson. He also spent years writing popular science content about skincare. Before launching PUskinology, the team built a communication channel through the leading skincare self-media account "Basic Skincare Research" (Jichu Yanjiu), amassing over 640,000 followers and 50,000 deeply engaged users. Throughout this process, they continuously listened to user feedback and real skincare concerns. This shaped the brand's founding mission: to provide users with "scientific, streamlined, and effective" skincare solutions and create products that genuinely deliver results.

The brand name "拾颜" (Shiyan) is a homophone for "experiment" in Chinese. To the founding team, using high-active ingredients to help users achieve more visible skincare results, and employing breakthrough processes to prevent those active ingredients from oxidizing quickly — these challenges can all be continuously solved through "scientific experimentation."

The PUskinology logo: the question mark represents users' skincare problems and the brand's R&D questions alike, embodying the brand spirit of "never stop questioning"

PUskinology's products officially launched in June of this year, with the current lineup centered on serum-style single-SKU items. On the R&D front, the brand insists on "exclusive innovation" in its processes. Its debut product was a 10% vitamin C serum spray. Rather than following the industry standard of using amber glass bottles to protect vitamin C from oxidation, the product innovatively employs a carbon dioxide canning process to displace oxygen and preserve the activity of pure vitamin C — allowing the high-activity VC to remain potent for up to six months after opening, solving the industry's long-standing problem of vitamin C destabilization. The water-based solvent formula also addresses the sticky, oily, and suffocating texture typical of conventional vitamin C serums. This product's repurchase rate is nearly double the industry average.

On packaging, PUskinology broke from tradition: product instructions were redesigned as single-sheet cards illustrating the product's design principles and efficacy, while outer packaging replaced conventional cardboard boxes with bubble mailers and reusable document pouches — adding practical utility beyond the product itself.

The brand has also established a long-term strategic partnership with the Yangtze River Delta Research Institute of Tsinghua University, dedicated to solving challenges in ingredient and process R&D. PUskinology is currently working to build out a richer product line, with plans to launch a body care series called "PUskinology · Qin" and gradually complete its product portfolio.

Rui Han, partner at Gaorong Ventures, noted: "The PUskinology founding team, through their operation of the leading skincare self-media account 'Basic Skincare Research,' has built up a broad follower base and deep user relationships, accumulating a massive sample library of Chinese users' skin concerns. This has given them profound insight into consumer needs. When it comes to product development, the team approaches their work with a scientist's rigor and an extreme pursuit of technical craftsmanship. They focus on what matters most and place great emphasis on user feedback to drive product R&D and iteration. This original vision and focus are what convinced us to invest. We look forward to seeing them develop more quality products for consumers in the future."

Smart parking leader AIPark (爱泊车) secures strategic investment from Xiaomi

Chaotianmen Wharf closes Pre-A round to build a Chongqing-flavored new consumer brand

Blokees closes 600 million yuan Series B as Chinese original block brand continues to push forward