C-CHANGE

Meet Wendy Yu, the 30-year-old investor and philanthropist behind some of fashion’s coolest names and biggest institutions. Now, she’s poised to modernise C-beauty.

- Katrina Israel

When signing up to WeChat, the multipurpose messaging app that unites China, Wendy Yu is a pretty connected first friend to have. As founder of Yu Holdings, the millennial investor, entrepreneur and philanthropist is the backer behind British fashion brands Mary Katrantzou and Samantha Cameron’s Cefinn. This is in addition to Tujia (Airbnb’s Chinese rival, which has an $85 billion valuation) and DiDi, the largest taxi-hailing firm in China. Not to mention the billionaire businesswoman’s ongoing patronage of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute in New York and support of The Business of Fashion’s China Prize to spotlight and fund up-and-coming Chinese design talent. Then there’s her most recent appointment, as China ambassador for emerging designers under Paris’s Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode (FHCM), a role that sees Yu traversing from couture client to council.

Now, the Forbes China ‘30 under 30’ nominee (when we chat she’s just shy of her 30th birthday) is adding beauty to her portfolio. This winter brings the global launch of Yumee cosmetics, the first brand the altruistic investor has conceived and developed in-house at Yu Holdings. “My friends in the West have always been curious about why Asian women have this flawless, porcelainlike skin,” she begins, speaking from her home in Shanghai. “We have a lot of hidden rituals and secrets that are to be discovered but in a more modern way.”

In spite of the storm clouds that hover over us all as coronavirus brings globalization to a standstill, Yu remains upbeat and generous of spirit, keen to catch up since our last rendezvous in London — her other home base.