(Yicai) Sept. 11 -- Estée Lauder has made an investment in Chinese beauty brand Codemint, Yicai learned from the Chinese branch of the US multinational cosmetics company.

New Incubation Ventures, Estée Lauder China's early investment and incubation department, has recently invested in Codemint, the firm said, without revealing the investment amount.

Codemint is owned by Hangzhou Jianfa Meixue Technology, founded by internet celebrity Grace Chow, according to corporate information platform Tianyancha. Chow holds a direct stake in Jianfa Meixue of over 42 percent and indirectly owns other shares.

The investment in Codemint by a large international company like Estée Lauder also shows that foreign capital takes a positive long-term view of China's beauty market, especially of Chinese brands, said Bai Yunhu, founder of digital supply chain platform Yiyoumei.

International cosmetic giants such as L'Oréal Group and Shiseido also invested in local Chinese beauty companies.

In August 2021, Shiseido China announced it would set up a special investment fund focusing on investment opportunities in beauty cosmetics and emerging health brands and related technical service companies with Boyu Capital. Last year, the fund reached a deal with Jiangsu Trautec Medical Technology to explore the medical beauty track in the field of functional skin care.

In 2021, Nivea's parent company Beiersdorf launched accelerator program NX China to select potential cutting-edge brands for investment in the Chinese market.

In May last year, L'Oréal established Shanghai Meicifang Investment, its first investment company for the Chinese market. A few months later, it led the A+ financing round of Documents, a Chinese perfume brand.

Editor: Futura Costaglione