Scalp-care brand Kos Liv raises 30M CNY, targets 3,000 in-store outlets
What's the deal? Chinese scalp-care brand Kos LivDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → has raised 30 million CNY (about $4.4 million) from Tiantu CapitalDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, the company announced in July 2026. The brand serves older consumers, a fast-growing segment as China's population ages.
Why now? Demand for scalp care among older adults is rising as they seek personalised treatments — anti-ageing, nourishment, and greying reversal — beyond basic dandruff and oil control. Founder Jennifer argues two things matter most: frequent care and customised solutions, neither of which product sales alone can deliver.
What's the endgame? Alongside the raise, Kos Liv unveiled a sub-brand, Le Tan, and an aggressive expansion plan: 3,000 store-in-store outlets. Rather than large standalone shops, it is placing points inside pharmacies and beauty salons, channels where older customers are already concentrated.
The company's approach is built on being lightweight. It has cut the treatment process to eight minutes, uses questionnaires and targeted diagnostics to shorten testing to roughly two minutes, and skips prepaid stored-value cards. It also offers a refund if treatments don't work, with all orders completed through a mini-program to build a private user base.
What could go wrong? Scaling a service-led model is hard. Traditional scalp care depends heavily on individual technicians' skills, making standardisation difficult and inconsistent experiences a risk to brand reputation. Fine-grained diagnosis and custom plans also raise operational demands.
Rivals are moving too. Sioris chain Siyu Yangfa runs more than 2,600 outlets and reported around 417 million CNY in product sales in 2024 — 57.76% of revenue, with services at about 34%. Estée Lauder-owned Aveda opened its first China store in Shanghai in 2025, pairing hair care with aromatherapy.
The signal: Capital is betting that scalp care for older consumers is shifting from one-off product sales to long-term, service-anchored relationships. As global players including L'Oréal, Unilever, and Japan's Kao push into offline salons and subscriptions, physical outlets are becoming trust infrastructure — and Kos Liv is wagering that lighter, denser store networks can win the silver-hair economy.
Read more: 36Kr
Image credit: Generated with Gemini
