As filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on August 29, 2022

Registration No. 333-263841​

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549

Amendment No. 4 to
FORM F-4

REGISTRATION STATEMENT

UNDER

THE SECURITIES ACT OF 1933

Perfect Corp.

(Exact Name of Registrant as Specified in Its Charter)​

Perfect Corp.
14F, No. 98 Minquan Road
Xindian District
New Taipei City 231
Taiwan
+886-2-8667-1265

(Address, Including Zip Code, and Telephone Number, Including Area Code, of Registrant’s Principal Executive Offices)

Cogency Global Inc.
122 East 42nd Street, 18th Floor
New York, New York 10168
United States
(800) 221-0102

(Name, Address, Including Zip Code, and Telephone Number, Including Area Code, of Agent for Service)

Copies to:

Approximate date of commencement of proposed sale of the securities to the public: As soon as practicable after the effective date of this registration statement and all other conditions to the proposed Business Combination described herein have been satisfied or waived.

If this Form is filed to register additional securities for an offering pursuant to Rule 462(b) under the Securities Act, check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering. ☐

If this Form is a post-effective amendment filed pursuant to Rule 462(d) under the Securities Act, check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering. ☐

If applicable, place an X in the box to designate the appropriate rule provision relied upon in conducting this transaction:

Exchange Act Rule 13e-4(i) (Cross-Border Issuer Tender Offer) ☐

Exchange Act Rule 14d-1(d) (Cross-Border Third-Party Tender Offer) ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is an emerging growth company as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act of 1933. Emerging growth company. ☒

If an emerging growth company that prepares its financial statements in accordance with U.S. GAAP, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 7(a)(2)(B) of the Securities Act. ☐

The registrant hereby amends this registration statement on such date or dates as may be necessary to delay its effective date until the registrant shall file a further amendment which specifically states that this registration statement shall thereafter become effective in accordance with Section 8(a) of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or until the registration statement shall become effective on such date as the Securities and Exchange Commission, acting pursuant to said Section 8(a), may determine.

The information in this preliminary proxy statement/prospectus is not complete and may be changed. These securities may not be issued until the registration statement filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is effective. This preliminary proxy statement/prospectus is not an offer to sell these securities and does not constitute the solicitation of an offer to buy these securities in any jurisdiction where the offer or sale is not permitted.

PRELIMINARY PROXY STATEMENT/PROSPECTUS, SUBJECT TO COMPLETION,
DATED AUGUST 29, 2022

PROXY STATEMENT FOR EXTRAORDINARY GENERAL MEETING OF

PROVIDENT ACQUISITION CORP.

(A CAYMAN ISLANDS EXEMPTED COMPANY)

PROSPECTUS FOR

28,415,000 CLASS A ORDINARY SHARES,
18,100,000 REDEEMABLE WARRANTS AND 18,100,000 CLASS A
ORDINARY SHARES UNDERLYING REDEEMABLE WARRANTS
IN EACH CASE, OF

PERFECT CORP.​

The board of directors of Provident Acquisition Corp., a Cayman Islands exempted company with limited liability (“Provident” or “PAQC”), has approved the Agreement and Plan of Merger (the “Business Combination Agreement”), dated as of March 3, 2022, by and among Provident, Perfect Corp., a Cayman Islands exempted company with limited liability (the “Company” or “Perfect”), Beauty Corp., a Cayman Islands exempted company with limited liability and a wholly owned subsidiary of Perfect (the “Merger Sub 1”), and Fashion Corp., a Cayman Islands exempted company with limited liability and a wholly owned subsidiary of Perfect (the “Merger Sub 2”).

Provident has significant ties to Hong Kong, including that it is located in Hong Kong and a majority of its current executive officers are also located in or have significant ties to Hong Kong. As a result of such ties, Provident faces certain legal risks and uncertainties relating to the laws and regulations of the People’s Republic of China (“PRC”). Although pursuant to the Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (the “Basic Law”), which is a national law of the PRC and the constitutional document for Hong Kong, national laws of the PRC are not applied in Hong Kong, except for those listed in Annex III of the Basic Law, which are confined to laws relating to defense and foreign affairs as well as other matters outside the autonomy of Hong Kong, the laws and regulations in the PRC are complex and evolving, and their enactment timetable, interpretation and implementation involve significant uncertainties. If certain PRC laws and regulations were to become applicable to a company such as Provident, the application of such laws and regulations may have a material adverse impact on it, including its ability to continue the Business Combination (as defined below) or seek another target company, any of which may cause the value of Provident’s securities to significantly decline or, in extreme cases, become worthless. In addition, Provident’s existing Public Shareholders (as defined below) may experience difficulties in effecting service of legal process, enforcing their rights under Provident’s controlling agreements, enforcing foreign judgments or bringing actions in Hong Kong against Provident or Provident’s management or its board of directors based on foreign laws. We cannot assure you that the Chinese government will not take action to intervene or influence Provident’s operations at any time prior to the Closing, or exert more control over offerings conducted overseas and/or foreign investment in Hong Kong-based issuers such as Provident. Any such action, once taken by the PRC government towards a company with Hong Kong nexus like Provident, could significantly limit or completely hinder Provident’s ability to consummate the Business Combination or Perfect’s ability to offer or continue to offer securities to investors. For details, see “Risk Factors — Risks Related to Provident’s Location in Hong Kong” beginning on page 115.

For the year ended December 31, 2021, Perfect’s revenue generated from the PRC represented less than 3% of Perfect’s total revenue for the same year. Perfect’s mobile apps are available for downloading and use in the PRC. Perfect has one operating subsidiary located in the PRC, and its business operations in the PRC are required to obtain and maintain applicable licenses and approvals from different regulatory authorities in order to provide its current services. Under the current PRC regulatory scheme, a number of regulatory agencies and local governments jointly regulate all major aspects of the internet industry and AI and AR industries. Operators in these industries must obtain various government approvals and licenses for relevant businesses. While Perfect believes that its PRC subsidiary has obtained and maintained all applicable licenses and approvals from the applicable regulatory authorities to provide its current services, Perfect cannot assure you that it will not be found in violation of any law and regulations currently in effect, due to the relevant authorities’ implementation or interpretation of these laws and regulations, or any future laws and

regulations. If Perfect fails to complete, obtain or maintain any of the required licenses or approvals or make the necessary filings, or otherwise fails to comply with such laws and regulations, it may be subject to various penalties, such as the imposition of fines and the discontinuation or restriction of its operations in the PRC. Any such penalties, proceedings or actions may disrupt Perfect’s business operations and materially and adversely affect its reputation, business, financial condition and results of operations and Perfect’s ability to offer or continue to offer securities to investors, any of which may cause the value of Perfect’s securities to significantly decline or, in extreme cases, become worthless. For details, see “Risk Factors — Risks Related to Doing Business in the PRC” beginning on page 84.

Pursuant to the Business Combination Agreement, (i) Merger Sub 1 will merge with and into Provident (the “First Merger”), with Provident surviving the First Merger as a wholly owned subsidiary of Perfect (Provident, as the surviving company of the First Merger, the “First Merger Surviving Company”), and (ii) immediately following the First Merger and as part of the same overall transaction, the First Merger Surviving Company will merge with and into Merger Sub 2 (the “Second Merger,” and together with the First Merger, the “Mergers”), with Merger Sub 2 surviving the Second Merger as a wholly owned subsidiary of Perfect (Merger Sub 2, as the surviving company of the Second Merger, the “Second Merger Surviving Company”). As a result of the Mergers, and upon consummation of the Mergers and the other transactions contemplated by the Business Combination Agreement (the “Business Combination” and together with transactions contemplated by agreements, instruments and documents contemplated by the Business Combination Agreement, the “Proposed Transactions”), the shareholders of Provident will become shareholders of Perfect. The respective times at which the First Merger and the Second Merger become effective is referred to as the “First Merger Effective Time” and “Second Merger Effective Time,” respectively. The consummation of the Mergers is referred to as the “Closing”.

Concurrently with the execution of the Business Combination Agreement, certain investors (the “PIPE Investors”) have entered into certain subscription agreements (each, a “Subscription Agreement”, and together, the “Subscription Agreements”), pursuant to which the PIPE Investors have committed to purchase Class A ordinary shares of Provident, par value $0.0001 per share (the “Provident Class A Ordinary Shares”) at a price of $10.00 per share for an aggregate purchase price of $50,000,000 (the “PIPE Investment”) on the date that is one business day prior to the date of the First Merger Effective Time. Under the Subscription Agreements, the obligations of the parties to consummate the PIPE Investment are subject to the satisfaction or waiver of certain customary closing conditions of the respective parties, including, among others, (i) the absence of a legal prohibition on consummating the PIPE Investment, (ii) all conditions precedent under the Business Combination Agreement having been satisfied or waived, (iii) the accuracy of representations and warranties in the Subscription Agreements in all material respects and (iv) material compliance with covenants in the Subscription Agreements.

In connection with the Initial Public Offering of Provident, Provident and certain investors (the “FPA Investors”) entered into certain forward purchase agreements (each, a “Forward Purchase Agreement”, and together, the Forward Purchase Agreements), pursuant to which the FPA Investors agreed to subscribe for and purchase, and Provident agreed to issue and sell to such FPA Investors, collectively, 5,500,000 Provident Class A Ordinary Shares (“Forward Purchase Shares”) and 2,750,000 warrants to purchase Provident Class A Ordinary Shares (“Forward Purchase Warrants”) in consideration for an aggregate purchase price of $55,000,000 (the “FPA Investment”). Under the Forward Purchase Agreements, the obligations of the parties to consummate the FPA Investment are subject to the satisfaction or waiver of certain customary closing conditions of the respective parties, including, among others, (i) the target business not conducting operations in the commodities, natural resources or mining industries or sectors, (ii) the absence of a legal prohibition on consummating the FPA Investment, (ii) all conditions precedent under the Business Combination having been satisfied or waived, (iii) the accuracy of representations and warranties in the Forward Purchase Agreements in all material respects and (iv) material compliance with covenants in the Forward Purchase Agreements.

Pursuant to the Business Combination Agreement, (i) immediately prior to the First Merger Effective Time, each issued and outstanding Class B ordinary share of Provident, par value $0.0001 per share (the “Provident Class B Ordinary Shares,” and together with the Provident Class A Ordinary Shares, the “Provident Ordinary Shares”), will be automatically converted into a number of Provident Class A Ordinary Shares in accordance with the conversion ratio (the “Conversion Ratio”) provided under the Amended and Restated Memorandum and Articles of Association of Provident (“Provident’s Articles”), and (ii) at the First Merger Effective Time, (A) each issued and outstanding Provident Class A Ordinary Share (other than the Provident Dissenting Shares (as defined below)) will be cancelled in exchange for the right to receive one Class A ordinary share of Perfect, par value $0.10 per share (each, a “Perfect Class A Ordinary Share”), and (B) each issued and outstanding Provident Class A Ordinary Share (each, a “Provident Dissenting Share”) that is held by any person who has validly exercised and not effectively withdrawn or lost their right to dissent from the First Merger in accordance with Section 238 of the Companies Act (As Revised) of the Cayman Islands (the “Companies Act”) will be cancelled and carry no right other than the right to receive the payment of the fair value of such Provident Dissenting Share determined in accordance with Section 238 of the Companies Act. In addition, pursuant to the Sponsor Letter Agreement, dated March 3, 2022, by and between Provident, Perfect and Provident Acquisition Holdings Ltd., a Cayman Islands exempted company (the “Sponsor”), (i) if the Conversion Ratio is less than the sum of (I) one plus (II) the quotient of (A) the number of Forward Purchase Shares divided by (B) 23,000,000 (the “Target Conversion Ratio”), Perfect will issue additional Perfect Class A Ordinary Shares to the former holders of Provident Class B Ordinary Shares to make the total number of Perfect Class A Ordinary Shares held by each such holder immediately after the First Merger Effective Time equal to an amount that such holder would hold had the Provident Class B Ordinary Shares been

converted into Provident Class A Ordinary Shares at the Target Conversion Ratio, and (ii) 25.90333% of the Perfect Class A Ordinary Shares held by the Sponsor as of immediately after the First Merger Effective Time (after the share issuance described in the foregoing (i)) will be surrendered and cancelled.

Pursuant to the Business Combination Agreement, at the First Merger Effective Time and as a result of the First Merger, each outstanding and unexercised warrant of Provident included in the Units (as defined below) sold to the public in connection with Provident’s Initial Public Offering (each, a “Public Warrant”), each outstanding and unexercised warrant of Provident sold to the Sponsor in a private placement in connection with Provident’s Initial Public Offering (each, a “Private Placement Warrant,” and together with the Public Warrants, the “Provident Warrants”), and each Forward Purchase Warrant will be converted into and become a right to receive a corresponding warrant exercisable for Perfect Class A Ordinary Shares. Immediately prior to the First Merger Effective Time, each issued and outstanding unit issued in Provident’s Initial Public Offering (each, a “Unit”), consisting of one Provident Class A Ordinary Share and one-half of one Public Warrant, will be automatically separated and the holder thereof will be deemed to hold one Provident Class A Ordinary Share and one-half of one Public Warrant (the “Unit Separation”). No fractional Public Warrants will be issued in connection with such Unit Separation such that if a holder of such Units would be entitled to receive a fractional Public Warrant upon such Unit Separation, the number of Public Warrants to be issued to such holder upon such Unit Separation will be rounded down to the nearest whole number of Public Warrants and no cash will be paid in lieu of such fractional Public Warrants.

Pursuant to the Business Combination Agreement, (i) at the First Merger Effective Time and as a result of the First Merger, each ordinary share of Merger Sub 1, par value $0.10 per share, issued and outstanding immediately prior to the First Merger Effective Time will be automatically converted into one ordinary share of the First Merger Surviving Company, par value $0.10 per share, and (ii) at the Second Merger Effective Time and as a result of the Second Merger, each ordinary share of the First Merger Surviving Company, par value $0.10 per share, and each ordinary share of Merger Sub 2, par value $0.10 per share, issued and outstanding immediately prior to the Second Merger Effective Time will be automatically converted into one ordinary share of the Second Merger Surviving Company, par value $0.10 per share.

As a result of the Business Combination, assuming that no shareholders of Provident elect to redeem their Provident Class A Ordinary Shares issued as part of the Units sold in Provident’s Initial Public Offering for cash in connection therewith as permitted by Provident’s Articles and that none of Provident shareholders exercises their dissenters’ rights, the shareholders of Perfect immediately prior to the First Merger Effective Time and the shareholders of Provident immediately prior to the First Merger Effective Time (including the PIPE Investors and FPA Investors) will own approximately 68.4% and 31.6%, respectively, of Perfect Class A Ordinary Shares to be outstanding immediately after the Business Combination, which do not include the Perfect Ordinary Shares reserved for issuance under the Perfect Incentive Plan or the Perfect Class B Ordinary Shares.

Immediately prior to the First Merger Effective Time, Perfect’s outstanding share capital will be recapitalized to consist of Perfect Class A Ordinary Shares and Class B ordinary shares of Perfect, par value $0.10 per share (the “Perfect Class B Ordinary Shares”). Alice H. Chang, the founder and Chief Executive Officer (the “CEO”) of Perfect, together with certain entities wholly owned by her, will beneficially own all issued and outstanding Perfect Class B Ordinary Shares. Immediately following the consummation of the Business Combination, those Perfect Class B Ordinary Shares will constitute 12.0% of Perfect’s total issued and outstanding ordinary shares and 57.7% of the aggregate voting power of Perfect’s total issued and outstanding ordinary shares, assuming that none of Provident’s existing Public Shareholders elect to have their Provident Class A Ordinary Shares redeemed for cash in connection with the Business Combination as permitted by Provident’s Articles and that none of Provident shareholders exercise their dissenters’ rights. Such percentages would be even larger if any Public Shareholders exercise their redemption rights or dissenters’ rights. Holders of Perfect Class A Ordinary Shares and Perfect Class B Ordinary Shares have the same rights except for voting and conversion rights. Each Perfect Class A Ordinary Share is entitled to one vote, and is not convertible into Perfect Class B Ordinary Shares under any circumstances. Each Perfect Class B Ordinary Share is entitled to ten votes and is convertible into one Perfect Class A Ordinary Share at any time by the holder thereof.

Due to the dual class structure described above, Perfect will be a “controlled company” within the meaning of the Nasdaq corporate governance rules immediately after the Business Combination. See “Beneficial Ownership of Securities”.

Under the Business Combination Agreement, the Closing therein is subject to a number of conditions, including that (i) Provident shareholders approve all proposals relating to the Proposed Transactions to be presented at the Meeting (as defined below) and (ii) the funds contained in Provident’s trust account (after taking into accounts payments by Provident to the Public Shareholders who exercise their redemption rights, as described herein), together with the aggregate amount of proceeds from the PIPE Investment and the FPA Investment, equal or exceed $125 million. If any of the conditions to Provident’s or Perfect’s obligation to consummate the Business Combination is not satisfied (or waived by the party entitled to waive), then the parties to the Business Combination Agreement will not be required to consummate the Business Combination.

On August 17, 2022, Goldman Sachs (Asia) L.L.C. (“Goldman Sachs Asia”) resigned from its role as financial advisor to Perfect in connection with the Business Combination. Barclays Capital Inc. (“Barclays Capital”) resigned from its roles as co-placement agent and co-capital markets advisor to Provident for the PIPE Investment, effective as of August 22, 2022, and Barclays Capital and Barclays Bank PLC (together with Barclays Capital, “Barclays”) each resigned from its role as M&A advisor to Provident in connection with the Business Combination, effective as of August 22, 2022. Citigroup Global Markets Inc. (“Citi”) resigned from its roles as co-placement agent and co-capital markets advisor to Provident for the PIPE Investment,

effective as of August 27, 2022. Each of Goldman Sachs Asia, Barclays and Citi claimed no remaining role in the Proposed Transactions. Goldman Sachs Asia has not reviewed the disclosure regarding its resignation, and each of Barclays and Citi was provided with opportunity to review the disclosures regarding its resignation. Each of Goldman Sachs Asia, Barclays and Citi has disclaimed any responsibility for any portion of this proxy statement/ prospectus or the registration statement of which such proxy statement/prospectus forms a part, despite having previously rendered services in connection with the Proposed Transactions. Each of Goldman Sachs Asia, Barclays and Citi has delivered a notice of resignation to the Securities and Exchange Commission pursuant to Section 11(b)(1) under the Securities Act, respectively. Each of Goldman Sachs Asia and Barclays and Citi’s resignation indicates that it does not want to be associated with the disclosure or the underlying business analysis related to the Proposed Transactions. As a result of such resignations, you should not place any reliance on the fact that Goldman Sachs Asia, Barclays and Citi was previously involved in any aspect of the Proposed Transactions described in this proxy statement/​prospectus.

Proposals to approve the Business Combination Agreement and the other matters discussed in this proxy statement/​prospectus will be presented at the extraordinary general meeting of Provident scheduled to be held on            , 2022 (the “Meeting”).

The Units, the Provident Class A Ordinary Shares and the Provident Warrants are currently listed on the Nasdaq Capital Market (“Nasdaq”) under the symbols “PAQCU,” “PAQC” and “PAQCW,” respectively. Although Perfect is not currently a public reporting company, following the effectiveness of the registration statement of which this proxy statement/prospectus is a part and the Closing, Perfect will become subject to the reporting requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”). Perfect intends to apply for listing of the Perfect Class A Ordinary Shares and Perfect Warrants on Nasdaq under the proposed symbols “PERF” and “PERFW” to be effective at the consummation of the Business Combination. It is a condition of the consummation of the Business Combination that the Perfect Class A Ordinary Shares and Perfect Warrants are approved for listing on Nasdaq (subject only to official notice of issuance thereof). While trading on Nasdaq is expected to begin on the first business day following the date of completion of the Business Combination, there can be no assurance that Perfect’s securities will be listed on Nasdaq or that another viable and active trading market will develop. See “Risk Factors” beginning on page 61 for more information.

As a holding company, Perfect may rely on dividends and other distributions on equity paid by its subsidiaries for its cash and financing requirements. If any of Perfect subsidiaries incur debt on its own behalf in the future, the instruments governing such debt may restrict their ability to pay dividends to Perfect. As of the date of this proxy statement/prospectus, neither Perfect nor any of its subsidiaries have ever paid dividends or made distributions.

Each of Provident and Perfect is an “emerging growth company” as defined in the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012 and has elected to comply with certain reduced public company reporting requirements.

Perfect is also a “foreign private issuer,” as defined in the Exchange Act, and will be exempt from certain rules under the Exchange Act that impose certain disclosure obligations and procedural requirements for proxy solicitations under Section 14 of the Exchange Act. In addition, Perfect’s officers, directors and principal shareholders will be exempt from the reporting and “short-swing” profit recovery provisions under Section 16 of the Exchange Act. Moreover, Perfect will not be required to file periodic reports and financial statements with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as frequently or as promptly as U.S. companies whose securities are registered under the Exchange Act.

This proxy statement/prospectus provides you with detailed information about the Proposed Transactions and other matters to be considered at the Meeting. We encourage you to carefully read this entire document and the documents incorporated by reference.

You should also carefully consider the risk factors described in “Risk Factors” beginning on page 61 of the accompanying proxy statement/prospectus.

Neither the Securities and Exchange Commission nor any state securities regulatory agency has approved or disapproved the transactions described in this proxy statement/prospectus or any of the securities to be issued in connection with the Proposed Transactions described in this proxy statement/prospectus, passed upon the merits or fairness of the Proposed Transactions described in this proxy statement/prospectus or related transactions or passed upon the adequacy or accuracy of the disclosure in this proxy statement/prospectus. Any representation to the contrary constitutes a criminal offense.

This proxy statement/prospectus is dated            , 2022, and is first being mailed to Provident shareholders on or about            , 2022.

 

PROXY STATEMENT/PROSPECTUS

PROVIDENT ACQUISITION CORP.

Unit 11C/D, Kimley Commercial Building
142-146 Queen’s Road Central
Hong Kong

NOTICE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENERAL MEETING OF PROVIDENT ACQUISITION CORP.

TO BE HELD ON           , 2022

TO THE SHAREHOLDERS OF PROVIDENT ACQUISITION CORP.:

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that an extraordinary general meeting (the “Meeting”) of Provident Acquisition Corp., a Cayman Islands exempted company with limited liability (“Provident,” “PAQC,” “we,” “us” or “our”), will be held on        , 2022, at      a.m., Eastern Time, at            , and virtually with live webcast at https://www.cstproxy.com/paqc/2022. Due to health concerns stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic, and to support the health and well-being of our shareholders, we encourage shareholders to attend the extraordinary general meeting virtually. For the purposes of Cayman Islands law and the Amended and Restated Memorandum and Articles of Association of Provident (“Provident’s Articles”), the physical location of the Meeting shall be at the offices of                 . You are cordially invited to attend the Meeting, which will be held for the purposes of considering and voting upon, and if thought fit passing and approving, the following resolutions:

(1)

The Business Combination Proposal:   as an ordinary resolution, that the Agreement and Plan of Merger, dated as of March 3, 2022 (the “Business Combination Agreement”), by and among Provident, Perfect Corp., a Cayman Islands exempted company with limited liability (the “Company” or “Perfect”), Beauty Corp., a Cayman Islands exempted company with limited liability and a wholly owned subsidiary of Perfect (the “Merger Sub 1”), and Fashion Corp., a Cayman Islands exempted company with limited liability and a wholly owned subsidiary of Perfect (the “Merger Sub 2”), a copy of which is attached to the accompanying proxy statement/​prospectus as Annex A, and the transactions contemplated thereunder (the “Business Combination” and together with transactions contemplated by agreements, instruments and documents contemplated by the Business Combination Agreement, the “Proposed Transactions”) including the mergers whereby Merger Sub 1 will merge with and into Provident (the “First Merger”), with Provident surviving the First Merger as a wholly owned subsidiary of Perfect (the “First Merger Surviving Company”), and immediately thereafter and as part of the same overall transaction, the First Merger Surviving Company will merge with and into Merger Sub 2 (the “Second Merger”), with Merger Sub 2 surviving the Second Merger as a wholly owned subsidiary of Perfect, be approved and authorized in all respects—we refer to this proposal as the “Business Combination Proposal”;

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(2)

The Merger Proposal:   as a special resolution, that the First Plan of Merger, a copy of which is attached to the accompanying proxy statement/prospectus as Annex C and will be produced and made available for inspection at the Meeting, and any and all transactions provided for in the First Plan of Merger, including, without limitation (a) the First Merger, (b) from the effective time of the First Merger (the “First Merger Effective Time”), the amendment and restatement of the existing memorandum and articles of association of Provident by deletion in their entirety and the substitution in their place of the amended and restated memorandum and articles of association of Provident (as the First Merger Surviving Company) in the form attached as Appendix II to the First Plan of Merger, being the memorandum and articles of association of Merger Sub 1, and (c) at the First Merger Effective Time, (i) the redesignation of all authorized shares of Provident (as the First Merger Surviving Company) as ordinary shares, such that the authorized share capital of the First Merger Surviving Company will become $22,100 divided into 221,000,000 ordinary shares of a par value of $0.0001 each (the “First Merger Surviving Company Share Redesignation”), (ii) upon the First Merger Surviving Company Share Redesignation becoming effective, the

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consolidation of the authorized share capital of the First Merger Surviving Company such that the authorized share capital of the First Merger Surviving Company will become $22,100 divided into 221,000 ordinary shares of a par value of $0.10 each (the “First Merger Surviving Company Share Consolidation”), and (iii) upon the First Merger Surviving Company Share Consolidation becoming effective, the increase of authorized share capital of the First Merger Surviving Company from $22,100 divided into 221,000 ordinary shares of a par value of $0.10 each to $50,000 divided into 500,000 ordinary shares of a par value of $0.10 each, be approved and authorized in all respects—we refer to this proposal as the “Merger Proposal”;

(3)

The Share Issuance Proposal:   as an ordinary resolution, that for purposes of complying with applicable Nasdaq listing rules, the issuance of 20% or more of issued and outstanding ordinary shares of Provident (the “Provident Ordinary Shares”) in connection with the Business Combination and related financing, be approved and authorized in all respects—we refer to this proposal as the “Share Issuance Proposal”; and

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(4)

The Adjournment Proposal:   as an ordinary resolution, that the Meeting be adjourned to a later date or dates to be determined by the chairman of the Meeting, (a) if necessary, to permit further solicitation and vote of proxies if, based upon the tabulated vote at the time of the Meeting, there are not sufficient votes to approve any of the other proposals presented to shareholders for vote, (b) to the extent necessary, to ensure that any required supplement or amendment to the accompanying proxy statement/prospectus is provided to Provident shareholders or (c) if as of the time for which the Meeting is scheduled, there are insufficient Provident Ordinary Shares represented (either in person or by proxy) to constitute a quorum necessary to conduct business at the Meeting—we refer to this proposal as the “Adjournment Proposal”.

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These items of business are described in the attached proxy statement/prospectus, which we encourage you to read in its entirety before voting. Only holders of record of Provident Ordinary Shares at the close of business on           , 2022 (being the record date) are entitled to notice of the Meeting and to vote at the Meeting and any adjournments of the Meeting. A complete list of our shareholders of record entitled to vote at the Meeting will be available for ten days before the Meeting at our principal executive offices for inspection by shareholders during ordinary business hours for any purpose germane to the Meeting.

After careful consideration, our board of directors has determined that the Business Combination Proposal, the Merger Proposal, the Share Issuance Proposal and the Adjournment Proposal are fair to and in the best interests of Provident and its shareholders, and unanimously recommends that you vote or give instruction to vote “FOR” the Business Combination Proposal, “FOR” the Merger Proposal, “FOR” the Share Issuance Proposal, and “FOR” the Adjournment Proposal, if presented. When you consider the board of directors’ recommendation of these proposals, you should keep in mind that our directors and our officers have interests in the Proposed Transactions that may conflict with your interests as a shareholder. See the section entitled “Proposal No. 1—The Business Combination Proposal— Interests of Provident’s Directors and Officers in the Business Combination” in the accompanying proxy statement/prospectus.

The approval of the Business Combination Proposal, the Share Issuance Proposal and the Adjournment Proposal requires the affirmative vote of holders of at least a majority of the Provident Ordinary Shares being present in person or by proxy and entitled to vote thereon and who vote at the Meeting, and the Merger Proposal requires the affirmative vote of holders of a majority of at least two-thirds of the Provident Ordinary Shares being present in person or by proxy and entitled to vote thereon and who vote at the Meeting. If any of the Business Combination Proposal, the Merger Proposal or the Share Issuance Proposal is not approved or any of the applicable closing conditions in the Business Combination Agreement is not satisfied or waived, the Proposed Transactions will not be consummated. The Adjournment Proposal is not conditioned on the approval of any other proposal set forth in the accompanying proxy statement/​prospectus.

All Provident shareholders are cordially invited to attend the Meeting. To ensure your representation at the Meeting, you are urged to complete, sign, date and return the enclosed proxy card as soon as possible. If you are a shareholder of record of Provident Ordinary Shares, you may also cast your vote in person at the Meeting. If your shares are held in an account at a brokerage firm or bank, you must instruct your broker

 

 

or bank on how to vote your shares or, if you wish to attend the Meeting and vote in person, obtain a proxy from your broker or bank.

Your vote is important regardless of the number of shares you own. Whether you plan to attend the Meeting or not, please sign, date and return the enclosed proxy card as soon as possible in the envelope provided. If your shares are held in “street name” or are in a margin or similar account, you should contact your broker to ensure that votes related to the shares you beneficially own are properly counted.

If you have any questions or need assistance voting your shares, please call our proxy solicitor, Morrow Sodali LLC, at 800-662-5200; banks and brokers may reach Morrow Sodali LLC at 203-658-9400.

On behalf of our board of directors, I thank you for your support and look forward to the successful completion of the Proposed Transactions.

By Order of the Board of Directors

   

Winato Kartono
Chairman

IF YOU RETURN YOUR PROXY CARD(S) WITHOUT AN INDICATION OF HOW YOU WISH TO VOTE, YOUR SHARES WILL BE VOTED IN FAVOR OF EACH OF THE PROPOSALS. TO EXERCISE YOUR REDEMPTION RIGHTS, YOU MUST ELECT THAT PROVIDENT REDEEM YOUR SHARES FOR CASH NO LATER THAN 5:00 P.M. EASTERN TIME ON    , 2022 (TWO BUSINESS DAYS PRIOR TO THE EXTRAORDINARY GENERAL MEETING) BY (A) DELIVERING A REDEMPTION NOTICE TO PROVIDENT’S TRANSFER AGENT AND (B) TENDERING YOUR SHARES TO PROVIDENT’S TRANSFER AGENT. YOU MAY TENDER YOUR SHARES BY EITHER DELIVERING YOUR SHARE CERTIFICATE TO THE TRANSFER AGENT OR BY DELIVERING YOUR SHARE CERTIFICATE AND REDEMPTION NOTICE ELECTRONICALLY USING THE DEPOSITORY TRUST COMPANY’S DWAC (DEPOSIT WITHDRAWAL AT CUSTODIAN) SYSTEM. WHETHER OR NOT, OR HOW, YOU VOTE ON THE BUSINESS COMBINATION PROPOSAL OR ANY OTHER PROPOSAL, WILL NOT AFFECT YOUR ELIGIBILITY FOR EXERCISING REDEMPTION RIGHTS. IF THE BUSINESS COMBINATION IS NOT COMPLETED, THEN THESE SHARES WILL NOT BE REDEEMED FOR CASH. IF YOU HOLD THE SHARES IN “STREET NAME,” YOU WILL NEED TO INSTRUCT THE ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE AT YOUR BANK OR BROKER TO WITHDRAW THE SHARES FROM YOUR ACCOUNT IN ORDER TO EXERCISE YOUR REDEMPTION RIGHTS. SEE “THE EXTRAORDINARY GENERAL MEETING OF PROVIDENT SHAREHOLDERS—REDEMPTION RIGHTS” FOR MORE SPECIFIC INSTRUCTIONS.

This proxy statement/prospectus is dated      , 2022 and is first being mailed to Provident shareholders on or about       , 2022.

 

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

i

 

 

ii

 

ABOUT THIS PROXY STATEMENT/PROSPECTUS

This document, which forms part of a registration statement on Form F-4 filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”), by Perfect, constitutes a prospectus of Perfect under Section 5 of the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), with respect to the Perfect Class A Ordinary Shares to be issued to Provident shareholders, the warrants to acquire Perfect Class A Ordinary Shares to be issued to holders of Provident Warrants and the Perfect Class A Ordinary Shares underlying such warrants, in connection with the Business Combination. This document also constitutes a notice of meeting and a proxy statement under Section 14(a) of the U.S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”), with respect to the Meeting at which Provident shareholders will be asked to consider and vote upon the proposals to adopt the Business Combination Agreement, to adopt the First Plan of Merger, to approve the issuance of 20% or more of Provident’s issued and outstanding ordinary shares in connection with the Proposed Transactions and related financing, and to adjourn the Meeting, if necessary, to permit further solicitation of proxies if there are not sufficient shares being present to constitute a quorum for the Meeting or insufficient votes to adopt the Business Combination Agreement or to ensure that any required supplement or amendment to this proxy statement/prospectus is provided to Provident shareholders.

Unless otherwise indicated or the context otherwise requires, all references in this proxy statement/​prospectus to “Perfect” or the “Company” refers to Perfect Corp. together with its subsidiaries. All references in this proxy statement/prospectus to “Provident” or “PAQC” refers to Provident Acquisition Corp.

References to “U.S. Dollars,” “USD,” “US$” and “$” in this proxy statement/prospectus are to United States dollars, the legal currency of the United States. Discrepancies in any table between totals and sums of the amounts listed are due to rounding. Certain amounts and percentages have been rounded; consequently, certain figures may add up to be more or less than the total amount and certain percentages may add up to be more or less than 100% due to rounding. In particular and without limitation, amounts expressed in millions contained in this proxy statement/prospectus have been rounded to a single decimal place for the convenience of readers. In addition, period on period percentage changes with respect to Perfect’s IFRS and non-IFRS measures and operating metrics have been calculated using actual figures derived from Perfect’s internal accounting records and not the rounded numbers contained in this proxy statement/prospectus, and as a result, such percentages may differ from those calculated based on the numbers contained in this proxy statement/prospectus.

 

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FINANCIAL STATEMENT PRESENTATION

Provident

The historical financial statements of Provident included in this proxy statement/prospectus have been prepared in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (“U.S. GAAP”) with its presentation currency of U.S. dollars.

Perfect

Perfect’s audited consolidated financial statements as of December 31, 2020 and 2021 and for the years ended December 31, 2019, 2020, and 2021 included in this proxy statement/prospectus have been prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (“IFRS”) as issued by the International Accounting Standards Board and are reported in U.S. Dollars.

Perfect refers in various places in this proxy statement/prospectus to non-IFRS financial measures. The presentation of non-IFRS information is not meant to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for Perfect’s audited consolidated financial results prepared in accordance with IFRS. See the section entitled —“Important Information about IFRS and Non-IFRS Financial Measures”.

 

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IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT IFRS AND NON-IFRS FINANCIAL MEASURES

Perfect’s financial statements included in this proxy statement/prospectus are prepared in accordance with IFRS. Perfect may refer in various places within this proxy statement/prospectus to non-IFRS financial measures. The presentation of this non-IFRS information is not meant to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for Perfect’s consolidated financial results prepared in accordance with IFRS.

 

v

 

INDUSTRY AND MARKET DATA

This proxy statement/prospectus contains estimates, projections and other information concerning Perfect’s industry, including market size and growth of the market in which it participates, that are derived from various public sources and certain information from an industry report commissioned by Perfect and prepared by Frost & Sullivan, a third-party industry research firm. This information involves a number of assumptions and limitations, and you are cautioned not to give undue weight to these estimates.

Industry publications, research, studies and forecasts generally state that the information they contain has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, but that the accuracy and completeness of such information is not guaranteed. In some cases, Perfect does not expressly refer to the sources from which these estimates and information are derived. While we have compiled, extracted, and reproduced industry data from these sources, we have not independently verified the data. Forecasts and other forward-looking information obtained from these sources are subject to the same qualifications and uncertainties as the other forward-looking statements in this proxy statement/prospectus. These forecasts and forward-looking information are subject to uncertainty and risk due to a variety of factors, including those described under “Risk Factors,” “Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements” and “Perfect’s Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” in this proxy statement/prospectus. These and other factors could cause results to differ materially from those expressed in any forecasts or estimates.

 

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FREQUENTLY USED TERMS

Unless otherwise stated or unless the context otherwise requires, all references to “Perfect” or the “Company” refer to Perfect Corp., a Cayman Islands exempted company with limited liability, together with its subsidiaries, and all references to “Provident” or “PAQC” refer to Provident Acquisition Corp., a Cayman Islands exempted company with limited liability.

In this document:

“Acquisition Entities” means Merger Sub 1 and Merger Sub 2.

“Adjournment Proposal” means a proposal to adjourn the Meeting to a later date or dates to be determined by the chairman of the Meeting, (i) if necessary, to permit further solicitation and vote of proxies if, based upon the tabulated vote at the time of the Meeting, there are not sufficient votes to approve any of the other proposals presented to shareholders for vote, (ii) to the extent necessary, to ensure that any required supplement or amendment to this proxy statement/prospectus is provided to Provident shareholders or (iii) if as of the time for which the Meeting is scheduled, there are insufficient Provident Ordinary Shares represented (either in person or by proxy) to constitute a quorum necessary to conduct business at the Meeting.

“AI” means artificial intelligence.

“Ancillary Agreements” means the Subscription Agreements, the Perfect Shareholder Voting Agreement, the Sponsor Letter Agreement, the New Registration Rights Agreement, the Perfect Shareholder Lock-Up Agreement, and the other agreements, instruments and documents expressly contemplated by the Business Combination Agreement.

“AR” means artificial reality.

“Assignment, Assumption and Amendment Agreement” means an assignment, assumption and amendment agreement to be entered prior to the Closing by and among Provident, Perfect and Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company (“Continental”), pursuant to which Provident will assign to Perfect all of its rights, title, interests, and liabilities and obligations in and under the Warrant Agreement, dated January 7, 2021, by and between Provident and Continental (the “Warrant Agreement”). The form of Assignment, Assumption and Amendment Agreement is attached hereto as Annex E.

“Available Cash” means, as of immediately prior to the Closing, an amount equal to the sum of (i) the amount of cash available to be released from the Trust Account (after giving effect to all payments to be made as a result of the completion of all Provident Shareholder Redemption), plus (ii) the net amount of proceeds actually received by Provident pursuant to the PIPE Investment and the FPA Investment.

“Board” means the board of directors of Provident or Perfect, as required by the context.

“brands” or “brand customers” mean the brand customers of Perfect, including global beauty group brands, indie brands and retailers for brands, unless otherwise stated or unless the context otherwise requires.

“broker non-vote” means the failure of a Provident shareholder, who holds his or her shares in “street name” through a broker or other nominee, to give voting instructions to such broker or other nominee.

“Business Combination” means the Mergers, and any other transactions contemplated by the Business Combination Agreement.

“Business Combination Agreement” means the Agreement and Plan of Merger, dated as of March 3, 2022, as may be amended, by and among Provident, Perfect, Beauty Corp. and Fashion Corp., and attached hereto as Annex A.

“Business Combination Proposal” means the proposal to approve and adopt the Business Combination Agreement and the transactions contemplated thereby.

“CAC” means the customer acquisition cost, which measures how much an organization spends to acquire new customers.

 

1

 

“CAGR” means compound annual growth rate.

“Churn” means a brand customer who does not have any Recurring Contract Revenue in the following year in the calculation of NDRR. Therefore, a brand customer is Churn in 2021 if the current contract period ended in 2020 and there is no new contract with such customer in 2021.

“Closing” means the consummation of the Mergers.

“Closing Date” means the date on which the Closing occurs.

“CLTV” means the customer life-time value, which measures the monetary value of a customer relationship, based on the total Contract Revenue that a specific set of customers are expected to generate throughout a certain length of lifespan as of a measurement date.

“Code” means the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended.

“Companies Act” means the Companies Act (As Revised) of the Cayman Islands, as amended, modified, re-enacted or replaced.

“Condition Precedent Proposals” means the Business Combination Proposal, the Merger Proposal and the Share Issuance Proposal.

“Contract Revenue” means, with respect to a brand customer that enters into a SaaS solutions subscription contract with Perfect, the total dollar amount the brand customer agrees to pay for the entire contract period as consideration for certain non-recurring (i.e., one-time) services and certain recurring services (i.e., services that are ongoing during the current contract period and subject to renewal after the end of the current contract period) provided by Perfect. For the purpose of calculating the total Contract Revenue only, the total dollar amount of the SaaS solutions subscription contract is attributable only to the fiscal year during which such contract was entered into by the particular brand customer. Historically, the Contract Revenue weighted contract period of all Perfect’s brands has been approximately 13 months.

“constitutional documents” means the formation documents of any of the entities listed herein, including the memorandum and articles of association, as they may be amended.

“COVID-19” means the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2 or COVID-19), and any evolutions, mutations or variations thereof or any other related or associated public health emergency, epidemics, pandemics or disease outbreaks occurring on and prior to the Closing Date.

“CyberLink” means CyberLink Corp., a company incorporated in Taiwan and listed on Taiwan Stock Exchange under the code 5203.

“CyberLink International” means CyberLink International Technology Corp., a British Virgin Islands exempted company.

“DTC” means The Depository Trust Company.

“Exchange Act” means the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended.

“First Merger” means the merger of Merger Sub 1 with and into Provident, with Provident surviving such merger.

“First Merger Effective Time” means the effective time of the First Merger.

“First Merger Surviving Company” means Provident, being the surviving entity of the First Merger.

“First Plan of Merger” means the plan of merger for the First Merger.

“Forward Purchase Agreements” means (i) that certain Forward Purchase Agreement, dated as of December 14, 2020, among Provident, Sponsor and WF Asian Reconnaissance Fund Limited, (ii) that certain Forward Purchase Agreement, dated as of December 15, 2020, between Provident and PT Nugraha Eka Kencana and (iii) that certain Forward Purchase Agreement, dated as of December 15, 2020, between Provident and Aventis Star Investments Limited.

 

2

 

“Forward Purchase Shares” means the 5,500,000 Provident Class A Ordinary Shares to be issued to the FPA Investors pursuant to the Forward Purchase Agreements.

“Forward Purchase Warrants” means the 2,750,000 warrants to purchase Provident Class A Ordinary Shares to be issued to the FPA Investors pursuant to the Forward Purchase Agreements.

“Founder Shares” means Provident Class B Ordinary Shares, 5,750,000 of which are currently outstanding and were issued to or transferred to, as applicable, the Initial Shareholders prior to, or concurrently with, as applicable, the Initial Public Offering (each a Founder Share).

“FPA Investment” means the transaction where the FPA Investors subscribe for and purchase, and Provident issue and sell to such FPA Investors, an aggregate of 5,500,000 Forward Purchase Shares and 2,750,000 Forward Purchase Warrants in consideration for an aggregate purchase price of $55.0 million that will close one business day prior to the date of the Closing.

“FPA Investors” means (i) WF Asian Reconnaissance Fund Limited (“Ward Ferry”), (ii) PT Nugraha Eka Kencana (“Saratoga”), a controlled subsidiary of PT Saratoga Investama Sedaya Tbk, an Indonesia-based investment company, and (iii) Aventis Star Investments Limited, an affiliate of Provident, and each is a party to a Forward Purchase Agreement.

“IFRS” refers to International Financial Reporting Standards as issued by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB).

“Illustrative Redemption Scenario” means the scenario in which the Public Shareholders exercise rights to redeem 21,001,443 Provident Class A Ordinary Shares, which represent the estimated maximum level of redemption that could occur without a failure to satisfy the Minimum Available Cash Condition under the terms of the Proposed Transactions (assuming the closing of the FPA Investment and the PIPE Investment), and represent approximately 91.31% of the total 23,000,000 Provident Class A Ordinary Shares that are subject to redemption right.

“Initial Public Offering” or “IPO” means the initial public offering of Units of Provident, consummated on January 12, 2021.

“Initial Shareholders” means the holders of the Founder Shares (including the Sponsor, certain directors and advisors of Provident and Ward Ferry).

“Interim Period” means the period from the date of the Business Combination Agreement and continuing until the earlier of the termination of the Business Combination Agreement and the Closing Date.

“Intermediate Redemption Scenario” means the scenario in which the Public Shareholders exercise rights to redeem 10,500,721 Provident Class A Ordinary Shares, which represent 50% of the number of Provident Class A Ordinary Shares redeemed under the Illustrative Redemption Scenario, and represent approximately 45.66% of the total 23,000,000 Provident Class A Ordinary Shares that are subject to redemption right.

“Investment Company Act” means the U.S. Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended.

“IRS” means the U.S. Internal Revenue Service.

“Japanese yen” and “JPY” mean the legal currency of Japan.

“JOBS Act” means the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act.

“Key Customers” means the Company’s brand customers who contributed revenue of more than $50,000 in any of the three years ended December 31, 2019, 2020 and 2021.

“MAU” means monthly active users, which is calculated as the number of unique user accounts, excluding spam accounts, that access an app at least once during a calendar month.

“Meeting” means the extraordinary general meeting of Provident, to be held on         , 2022, at    a.m., Eastern Time, at [           ].

 

3

 

“Merger Proposal” means a proposal to approve the First Plan of Merger and any and all transactions provided for in the First Plan of Merger.

“Merger Sub 1” means Beauty Corp., a Cayman Islands exempted company with limited liability.

“Merger Sub 2” means Fashion Corp., a Cayman Islands exempted company with limited liability.

“Mergers” means the First Merger and the Second Merger.

“Minimum Available Cash Condition” means the condition to the obligations of Perfect and Acquisition Entities to consummate the Mergers under the Business Combination Agreement in which the Available Cash is equal to or exceeds $125,000,000.

“Nasdaq” means the Nasdaq Capital Market.

“NDRR” means net dollar retention rate, which is a percentage that reflects how Perfect’s annualized Recurring Contract Revenue has increased or decreased within a defined time period for a specific set of brand customers. NDRR is calculated as (i) the annualized Recurring Contract Revenue for the current fiscal year, divided by (ii) the annualized Recurring Contract Revenue in prior fiscal year from the same set of brand customers who have subscribed to Perfect’s SaaS solutions in both fiscal years. NDRR reflects existing brand customers’ renewals, expansion and contraction of subscription to Perfect’s SaaS solutions, and Churn, but excludes Contract Revenue from new customers.

“New Registration Rights Agreement” means the registration rights agreement to be entered into by Perfect, the Sponsor, and certain Perfect shareholders at the Closing Date in connection with the Business Combination.

“New Taiwan Dollar,” “NT Dollar” and “NTD” mean the legal currency of Taiwan.

“No Redemption Scenario” means the scenario in which none of the Public Shareholders exercises any rights to redeem any Provident Class A Ordinary Share.

“ordinary resolution” means a resolution passed by a simple majority of the votes of the issued and outstanding Provident Ordinary Shares that are cast by those shareholders who, being entitled to do so, vote in person or by proxy at a general meeting of the company.

“PCAOB” means the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board.

“Perfect Blank Check Shares” means following adoption of Perfect’s Articles on the date of the First Merger Effective Time, 30,000,000 shares of a par value of $0.10 each of such class or classes (however designated) of Perfect as Perfect’s Board may determine in accordance with Article 5 of Perfect’s Articles, unless otherwise specified.

“Perfect Class A Ordinary Shares” means the Class A ordinary shares of Perfect, par value $0.10 per share.

“Perfect Class B Ordinary Shares” means the Class B ordinary shares of Perfect, par value $0.10 per share.

“Perfect Common Shares” means the common shares of Perfect, par value $0.10 per share.

“Perfect Founder Parties” means DVDonet.com. Inc., Golden Edge Co., Ltd., World Speed Company Limited and Alice H. Chang, a citizen of Taiwan.

“Perfect Incentive Plan” means the 2021 Stock Compensation Plan adopted by Perfect’s Board on December 13, 2021, a copy of which is filed herewith as Exhibit 10.13.

“Perfect Ordinary Shares” means collectively, Perfect Class A Ordinary Shares, Perfect Class B Ordinary Shares, and any other class or series of ordinary shares Perfect may issue from time to time.

“Perfect Preferred Shares” means (i) the series A preferred shares of Perfect, par value $0.10 per share, (ii) the series A-1 preferred shares of Perfect, par value $0.10 per share, (iii) the series B preferred shares of

 

4

 

Perfect, par value $0.10 per share, (iv) the series C-1 preferred shares of Perfect, par value $0.10 per share, and (v) the series C-2 preferred shares of Perfect, par value $0.10 per share.

“Perfect Securities” means Perfect Class A Ordinary Shares and Perfect Warrants.

“Perfect Shares” means shares in the capital of Perfect of any class including a fraction of such shares, whether the Perfect Class A Ordinary Shares or the Perfect Class B Ordinary Shares or others after the Closing and does not include Perfect Pre-Recapitalization Perfect Shares.

“Perfect Shareholder Lock-Up Agreement” means the Lock-Up Agreement to be entered into by Provident, Perfect and certain Perfect shareholders prior to or concurrently with the Closing.

“Perfect Shareholder Voting Agreement” means the voting agreement dated March 3, 2022, entered into by the Perfect shareholders, Perfect and Provident.

“Perfect Warrants” means the warrants into which the Provident Warrants convert at the First Merger Effective Time, each entitling its holder to purchase one Perfect Class A Ordinary Share pursuant to the terms of the Warrant Agreement as amended by the Assignment, Assumption and Amendment Agreement.

“Perfect’s Articles” means the Amended and Restated Memorandum and Articles of Association of Perfect to be adopted prior to the First Merger Effective Time.

“Perfect’s Board” means the board of directors of Perfect.

“PFIC” means passive foreign investment company.

“PIPE” or “PIPE Investment” means the sale of 5,000,000 Provident Class A Ordinary Shares to the PIPE Investors at a purchase price of $10.00 per Provident Class A Ordinary Share.

“PIPE Investors” means those certain investors who are party to the Subscription Agreements in connection with the PIPE Investment.

“Pre-Recapitalization Perfect Shares” means the Perfect Common Shares and Perfect Preferred Shares.

“Private Placement Warrants” means the warrants sold by Provident privately to the Sponsor simultaneously with the consummation of the Initial Public Offering (including the underwriters’ partial exercise of their over-allotment option).

“Proposals” means the Business Combination Proposal, the Merger Proposal, the Share Issuance Proposal and the Adjournment Proposal.

“Proposed Transactions” means the transactions contemplated by the Business Combination Agreement and the Ancillary Agreements.

“Provident Class A Ordinary Shares” means the Class A ordinary shares of Provident, par value $0.0001 per share.

“Provident Class B Ordinary Shares” means the Class B ordinary shares of Provident, par value $0.0001 per share.

“Provident Ordinary Shares” means the Provident Class A Ordinary Shares and the Provident Class B Ordinary Shares.

“Provident Warrants” means the Private Placement Warrants, Public Warrants and Forward Purchase Warrants.

“Provident’s Articles” means the amended and restated memorandum and articles of association of Provident adopted on January 5, 2021 and effective on January 7, 2021 and is attached to this proxy statement/​prospectus as Annex D.

“Provident’s Board” means the board of directors of Provident.

“proxy statement/prospectus” means this proxy statement/prospectus included in this registration statement on Form F-4 filed with the SEC in connection with the Proposed Transactions.

 

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“Public Shareholders” means the holders of the Public Shares.

“Public Shares” means Provident Class A Ordinary Shares issued as part of the Units sold in the Initial Public Offering.

“Public Warrants” means the warrants included in the Units sold in the Initial Public Offering (including the underwriters’ partial exercise of their over-allotment option), each of which is exercisable for one Provident Class A Ordinary Share, in accordance with its terms.

“Recapitalization” has the meaning given to that term in the Business Combination Agreement.

“Record Date” means     , 2022.

“Recurring Contract Revenue” means, with respect to a brand customer that enters into a SaaS solutions subscription contract with Perfect, the portion of such brand customer’s Contract Revenue that is attributable to recurring services provided by Perfect. For the purpose of determining which fiscal year has Recurring Contract Revenue and calculating monthly Recurring Contract Revenue, the total dollar amount of Contract Revenue attributable to the recurring services is allocated on a pro rata basis to each month during the contract period. Any fiscal year that covers at least one such month is deemed to have Recurring Contract Revenue. The annualized Recurring Contract Revenue is calculated by multiplying the monthly Recurring Contract Revenue by 12.

“Registration Rights Agreement” means the registration rights agreement dated January 7, 2021, entered into by Provident, the Sponsor and the Holders (as defined therein).

“SaaS” means software as a service.

“SDK” means software development kit, a collection of software development tools in one installable package which can facilitate the creation of applications by having a compiler, debugger and sometimes a software framework.

“SEC” means the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

“Second Merger” means the merger of the First Merger Surviving Company with and into Merger Sub 2, with Merger Sub 2 surviving such as a wholly owned subsidiary of Perfect.

“Second Merger Effective Time” means the effective time of the Second Merger.

“Second Merger Surviving Company” means Merger Sub 2, being the surviving entity of the Second Merger.

“Second Plan of Merger” means the plan of merger for the Second Merger.

“Securities Act” means the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended.

“Shareholder Earnout Shares” means an aggregate of 10,000,000 Perfect Ordinary Shares issuable to the selected Perfect shareholders within five years of the Closing, upon the occurrence of certain milestones.

“Share Issuance Proposal” means a proposal to issue 20% or more of Provident Ordinary Shares in connection with the Business Combination and other Proposed Transactions for purposes of complying with applicable Nasdaq Stock Market listing rules.

“SKU” means stock keeping unit, which is a scannable bar code printed on product labels.

“special resolution” means a special resolution under the Companies Act, being a resolution passed by at least a two-thirds majority of the votes of the issued and outstanding Provident Ordinary Shares that are cast by those shareholders who, being entitled to do so, vote in person or by proxy at a general meeting of the company.

“Sponsor” means Provident Acquisition Holdings Ltd., a Cayman Islands exempted company with limited liability.

 

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“Sponsor Earnout Promote Shares” has the meaning given to “Earnout Promote Shares” in the Sponsor Letter Agreement.

“Sponsor Letter Agreement” means the sponsor letter agreement dated March 3, 2022, entered into by Perfect, Provident and Sponsor.

“Subscription Agreements” means the subscription agreements, each dated as of March 3, 2022, entered into by Provident, Perfect and the PIPE Investors, pursuant to which the PIPE Investors have agreed to purchase an aggregate of 5,000,000 Provident Class A Ordinary Shares one business day before the date of the Closing at a purchase price of $10.00 per share.

“T-IFRS” means the Regulations Governing the Preparation of Financial Reports by Securities Issuers and the International Reporting Standards, International Accounting Standards, IFRIC Interpretations, and SIC Interpretations endorsed and issued into effect by R.O.C. Financial Supervisory Commission.

“Termination Date” means December 31, 2022.

“Trust Account” means the trust account that holds a portion of the proceeds of the Initial Public Offering and the concurrent sale of the Private Placement Warrants, and any over-allotment option exercised pursuant to such Initial Public Offering.

“Unit(s)” means a unit or the units issued in the Initial Public Offering, each consisting of one Provident Class A Ordinary Share and one-half of one redeemable Public Warrant.

“U.S.” means the United States of America.

“U.S. dollar,” “US$,” “USD” and “$” mean the legal currency of the United States.

“U.S. GAAP” means United States generally accepted accounting principles.

“Working Capital Loans” means the loans which may be offered by the Sponsor or certain of its officers and directors and their respective affiliates to Provident to fund working capital deficiencies.

 

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QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ABOUT THE PROPOSED TRANSACTIONS

The following questions and answers briefly address some commonly asked questions about the Proposed Transactions and the Proposals to be presented at the Meeting. The following questions and answers may not include all the information that is important to Provident’s shareholders. Shareholders are urged to read carefully this entire proxy statement/prospectus, including the financial statements and annexes attached hereto and the other documents referred to herein.

 

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9

 

 

10

 

 

11

 

 

12

 

 

13

 

 

14

 

 

15

 

 

16

 

(1)

Excludes (a) Perfect Class A Ordinary Shares issuable upon the exercise of 20,850,000 Perfect Warrants to be outstanding upon completion of the Business Combination, (b) 10,000,000 Shareholder Earnout Shares, (c) 1,175,624 Sponsor Earnout Promote Shares, and (d) 5,311,310 Perfect Ordinary Shares reserved for issuance under the Perfect Incentive Plan.

​

(2)

Excludes Perfect Class A Ordinary Shares to be issued in exchange for Provident Class A Ordinary Shares issued to the Initial Shareholders pursuant to the FPA Investment.

​

(3)

Represents 5,500,000 Perfect Class A Ordinary Shares to be held by the FPA Investors upon exchange with the same amount of Provident Class A Ordinary Shares.

​

(4)

Represents 5,000,000 Perfect Class A Ordinary Shares to be held by the PIPE Investors upon exchange with the same amount of Provident Class A Ordinary Shares.

​

Additionally, the sensitivity table below sets forth the potential additional dilutive impact of each of the Additional Dilution Sources in each redemption scenario. Increasing levels of redemption will increase the dilutive effects of these issuances on non-redeeming Provident shareholders, FPA Investors, PIPE Investors and legacy Perfect shareholders.

 

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(1)

The calculation of the percentage of shares with respect to each Additional Dilution Source includes the full amount of shares issuable with respect to such Additional Dilution Source (but not the other Additional Dilution Sources) in both the numerator and denominator. For example, in the No Redemption Scenario, the percentage of shares with respect to the Additional Dilution Source of the Perfect Warrants would be calculated as follows: (a) 20,850,000 Perfect Class A Ordinary Shares underlying the Perfect Warrants; divided by (b) the sum of (i) 139,914,998 Perfect Shares outstanding upon completion of the Business Combination under the No Redemption Scenario before taking into account any Additional Dilution Source, plus (ii) 20,850,000 Perfect Class A Ordinary Shares underlying the Perfect Warrants.

​

​

(2)

This row assumes exercise of all Perfect Warrants for cash. Represents (i) 11,500,000 Perfect Warrants to be exchanged from 11,500,000 Public Warrants, (ii) 6,600,000 Perfect Warrants to be exchanged from 6,600,000 Private Placement Warrants, and (iii) 2,750,000 Perfect Warrants to be exchanged from 2,750,000 Forward Purchase Warrants, in each case, in connection with the Business Combination. Immediately prior to the Business Combination, Provident will have 11,500,000 Public Warrants outstanding, irrespective of the number of Provident Public Shareholders who exercise their redemption rights, and all such 11,500,000 Public Warrants will be exchanged for Perfect Warrants on a one-to-one basis at the Closing. Based on the closing price of the Public Warrants on Nasdaq of $0.28 on August 26, 2022, the 11,500,000 Public Warrants have an aggregate value of $3,220,000.

​

(3)

This row assumes exercise of all awards under Perfect Incentive Plan on a cash basis and all awards are earned and settled in Perfect Class A Ordinary Shares.

​

(4)

This row assumes all 10,000,000 Shareholder Earnout Shares are issued to respective shareholders of Perfect.

​

(5)

This row assumes all 1,175,624 Sponsor Earnout Promote Shares are issued to the Sponsor.

​

(6)

This row assumes the issuance of all Perfect Class A Ordinary Shares in connection with each of the Additional Dilution Sources, as described in Notes 2 through 5 above. Due to the calculation formula as illustrated in Note 1 above, the percentage of the total Additional Dilution Sources is not equal to the sum of the percentage of each Additional Dilution Source.

​

The share amounts and ownership percentages set forth in the two tables above are not indicative of voting percentages. Perfect will only proceed with the Business Combination if (a) Merger Sub 2 (as the surviving company of the Mergers) will have net tangible assets of at least $5,000,001 upon consummation of the Business Combination and (b) the Minimum Available Cash Condition is either satisfied or waived. If the actual facts are different than the assumptions set forth above, the share amounts and percentage ownership numbers set forth above will be different.

Provident’s public shareholders who redeem their Provident Class A Ordinary Shares may continue to hold any Public Warrants they own, which results in additional dilution to non-redeeming holders upon exercise of the Public Warrants. For details of the potential risks, see “Risk Factors—​Risks Related to the Perfect Class A Ordinary Shares and the Perfect Warrants—Provident’s public shareholders who redeem their Provident Class A Ordinary Shares may continue to hold any Public Warrants they own, which results in additional dilution to non-redeeming holders upon exercise of the Public Warrants.”

 

18

 

 

19

 

 

20

 

 

21

 

 

22

 

 

23

 

 

24

 

 

25

 

 

26

 

 

27

 

 

28

 

 

29

 

 

30

 

 

31

 

 

32

 

 

33

 

 

34

 

 

35

 

 

36

 

37

 

38

 

39

 

40

 

41

 

42

 

43

 

44

 

45

 

46

 

47

 

48

 

​

49

 

50

 

​

51

 

​

52

 

​

53

 

54

 

55

 

56

 

​

57

 

58

 

​

​

​

Six Months Ended June 30,

​

($ in thousands)

​

​

2021 (Unaudited)

​

​

2022 (Estimated)

​

Revenue

​

​

​

​

17,288

​

​

​

​

​

23,379

​

​

Cost of Sales and Services

​

​

​

​

(2,594)

​

​

​

​

​

(3,282)

​

​

Gross profit

​

​

​

​

14,694

​

​

​

​

​

20,097

​

​

Operating expenses:

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

Sales and marketing expenses

​

​

​

​

(10,761)

​

​

​

​

​

(12,087)

​

​

Research and development expenses

​

​

​

​

(4,184)

​

​

​

​

​

(5,358)

​

​

General and administrative expenses

​

​

​

​

(1,133)

​

​

​

​

​

(4,700)

​

​

Total operating expenses

​

​

​

​

(16,078)

​

​

​

​

​

(22,145)

​

​

Operating (loss)

​

​

​

​

(1,384)

​

​

​

​

​

(2,048)

​

​

Total non-operating expenses and income

​

​

​

​

(1,624)

​

​

​

​

​

29,161

​

​

(Loss) income before income tax

​

​

​

​

(3,008)

​

​

​

​

​

27,113

​

​

Income tax expense

​

​

​

​

(137)

​

​

​

​

​

(161)

​

​

Net (loss) income for the period

​

​

​

​

(3,145)

​

​

​

​

​

26,952

​

​

($ in thousands)

​

​

As of December 31, 2021

​

​

As of June 30, 2022 (Estimated)

​

Cash and cash equivalents

​

​

​

​

80,453

​

​

​

​

​

82,773

​

​

Total Assets

​

​

​

​

88,904

​

​

​

​

​

93,832

​

​

Total Liabilities

​

​

​

​

279,346

​

​

​

​

​

251,732

​

​

Total Equity

​

​

​

​

(190,442)

​

​

​

​

​

(157,900)

​

​

Total Liabilities and Equity

​

​

​

​

88,904

​

​

​

​

​

93,832

​

​

59

 

60

 

RISK FACTORS

Shareholders should carefully consider the following risk factors, together with all of the other information included in this proxy statement/prospectus, before they decide whether to vote or instruct their vote to be cast to approve the proposals described in this proxy statement/prospectus. The value of your investment in Perfect following consummation of the Business Combination will be subject to the significant risks affecting Perfect and inherent in the industry in which Perfect operates. You should carefully consider the risks and uncertainties described below and other information included in this proxy statement/prospectus. If any of the events described below occur, the post-acquisition business and financial results could be adversely affected in a material way. This could cause the trading price of Perfect Class A Ordinary Shares to decline, perhaps significantly, and you therefore may lose all or part of your investment. As used in the risks described in this subsection, references to the “Company,” “we,” “us” and “our” are intended to refer to Perfect and its subsidiaries unless the context clearly indicates otherwise.

Risks Related to Perfect’s Business and Industry Following the Proposed Transactions

We operate in relatively new and rapidly evolving markets. If the development of the markets stops or slows down, our business will be materially and adversely affected.

The AR- and AI-beauty technologies and fashion tech markets are relatively new and rapidly evolving, which subjects our business to uncertainties and challenges relating to the growth and profitability of these markets as a whole. Our global addressable market is mainly driven by the growth in the beauty market and the expected marketing and AR- and AI-spending by beauty brands, which depend on a number of factors, including overall consumer awareness about beauty products and services, brands’ deployment of digital marketing to create meaningful customer interaction and engagement, brands’ investment in omni-channels to build relationships with their customers, budgetary constraints of brands, regulatory changes and changes in broader economic conditions. If beauty brands do not recognize our value proposition, a viable market may not develop further, or develop more slowly than we expect, our business and operating results will be materially and adversely affected.

We have also benefited from the rapid growth of the demand and usage of photo-editing software among professionals as well as amateur photographers in the past few years. The popularity of photo-editing software has been fueled by the rise of the selfie culture, the popularity of social media and the increasing user adoption of smartphones and availability of high-definition cameras in smartphones. The increased demand of photo-editing software to create the “perfect” selfies prompts the software providers to enhance their offerings by integrating advanced features such as AR effects, AI editing and layer editing. If the demand for photo-editing software slows, if we fail to accurately predict customer demand and preferences for our mobile apps, or if we fail to timely adjust to meet shifting trends in popular culture and technology, our business and operating results will be materially and adversely affected.

We have a new business model and a short operating history in developing and rapidly evolving markets for our products and services, which makes it difficult to evaluate our future prospects.

We launched our AR Makeup solution in 2015 and have offered other solutions and products over the recent years. We are still in the process of expanding into the fashion tech market. Our limited operating history makes it difficult to effectively assess our future prospects or forecast our future results. In particular, we expect to encounter inherent risks and challenges in the developing and rapidly evolving beauty technologies and fashion tech markets, which include our ability to, among other things:

•

grow our brand portfolio and enhance level of consumer engagement with brands;

​

•

develop or implement additional strategic initiatives to further increase monetization of our products and services;

​

•

successfully expand our business operations and enhance the value of our brand globally;

​

•

develop and launch diversified and distinguishable products and premium features to effectively address the needs of brands;

​

 

61

 

•

maintain and strengthen our competitive edge on our key technologies, including our AgileFace® face-rendering technology, true-to-life AR technology, AI technology and machine-learning capabilities and big-data analytics;

​

•

maintain a reliable, secure, high-performance and scalable technology infrastructure that can efficiently handle increased usage;

​

•

develop and maintain relationships with brands, digital distribution platforms and other third parties;

​

•

successfully compete with other companies that are currently in, or may in the future enter, the markets that we operate in, or duplicate the features of our products;

​

•

maintain our innovative company culture and continue to attract, retain and motivate talented employees; and

​

•

defend ourselves against litigation, regulatory interference, claims concerning intellectual property or privacy or other aspects of our business.

​

Failure to adequately address any of the risks and challenges associated with these dynamic and evolving markets may adversely affect our business, financial conditions and results of operations.

If we fail to retain and expand sales to existing brands or attract new brands, or if consumers decrease their level of engagement with such brands or our mobile apps, our business and operating results may be materially and adversely affected.

Our brand portfolio and the level of consumer engagement with brands and our mobile apps are critical to our success. We had a total of approximately 444 brands in our brand portfolio as of December 31, 2021, providing services to approximately 85% of the top 20 beauty groups that have adopted AR- and AI-technologies. As the beauty technologies market matures, and product and service offerings evolve, our competitors may introduce differentiated products and services with lower cost. If our pricing is not competitive or we cannot attract new brands or maintain and expand the existing relationships with brands, our business and operating results may be harmed. Our ability to increase our revenue also depends on our ability to expand the sales of our products and services to, and renew subscriptions with, existing brands. The existing brands in our portfolio must increase their use of our products and services by purchasing new products as well as enhanced products and services and renew their subscriptions. We cannot guarantee that our efforts to expand sales to our existing brands in our portfolio will be successful or that such brands will renew their subscriptions with us for a similar or greater contract period or on the same or more favorable terms.

Our business performance has been and will continue to be significantly dependent on our ability to increase the level of consumer engagement with both brands and our mobile apps. If brand and users of our mobile apps do not perceive our products and services to be useful, reliable or trustworthy, we may not be able to attract or retain consumers or otherwise maintain or increase the frequency, duration or level of their engagement. A number of factors could negatively affect the growth of brand portfolio and level of consumer engagement, including that:

•

we may be not be able to continue to offer products and services that meet evolving consumer preferences and demands;

​

•

our competitors may launch or develop products and services similar to ours or with better consumer experience, and consumers may increasingly engage with such competing products or services and less with our products and services;

​

•

we may not be able to timely develop and introduce new or enhanced products and services that respond to market trends or advances, or the new or enhanced products and services that we introduce may not reach wide market acceptance or popularity;

​

•

we may fail to provide adequate customer service to brands and consumers or maintain existing relationships with brands;

​

•

we may fail to address consumer concerns related to privacy and information-sharing, safety or security;

​

 

62

 

•

we may encounter technical or other problems that prevent us from delivering our products and services in a rapid and reliable manner or otherwise negatively affect the consumer experience; or

​

•

we may fail to maintain our brand image or our reputation may be damaged.

​

There is no guarantee that we will not experience decline in level of consumer engagement. A decrease in customer growth or consumer engagement may render our platform less attractive to brands and consumers, which may have a material and adverse impact on our business, financial condition, reputation and results of operations.

Our success is dependent on the continued popularity and perceived precision of our technology solutions.

Our success depends on our ability to continuously offer quality products that are attractive to brands and users of our mobile apps and our ability to effectively respond to changes in overall consumer demographics, tastes and preferences. Consumer preferences may shift over time in response to changes in demographic and social trends, technological developments, economic circumstances and the marketing efforts of our competitors. We intend to continue to implement our data and machine-learning strategy to enhance our platform and provide a wider range of products and services with higher precision and even higher true-to-life accuracy, as well as further personalization and individualized recommendations for our consumers. However, there can be no assurance that our existing products will continue to be favored by brands and users of our mobile apps or that we will be able to anticipate or respond to changes in consumer preferences, technological changes and industry trends in a timely manner.

In addition, as we expand into new countries and regions, we may not be able to launch products that appeal to local consumers due to insufficient understanding of local cultures and lifestyles. Our failure to anticipate, identify or react to these particular preferences could adversely affect our sales performance and our results of operations.

We may not be successful if we are not able to innovate, develop and provide new products and services or upgrade our existing products and services in a timely and cost-effective manner to address rapidly evolving consumer preferences, industry trends and technological changes, and any new products and services we develop and provide, may expose us to new risks and may not achieve expected returns.

We compete in markets characterized by rapidly changing products and services, evolving consumer preferences, technological advances and continual improvements in product performance characteristics and features. As a result, our success depends on our ability to anticipate and to innovate, develop and provide new products and services or upgrade our existing products and services in a timely and cost-effective manner to address evolving consumer preferences and demands, including in areas where we have little or no prior development or operating experience.

We have a team of 127 technology personnel, comprising R&D and QA staff, dedicated to the constant improvement on our platform, development of new features and creation of new apps. We provide comprehensive omni-channel solutions to brands and retailers across multiple industries, including makeup, skincare, accessories and eyewear. In 2021, we launched for brand customers live AR virtual try-ons for nails and men’s grooming products including beard dye virtual try-ons, beard-removal simulation and beard-style simulation. However, we cannot guarantee that we will succeed in developing products and services that eventually become widely accepted, or that we will be able to timely release products and services that are commercially viable. Our inability to do so would have an adverse impact on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our recent rapid growth may not be indicative of our future growth. Even if we continue to grow, we may not be able to successfully execute our growth strategies.

We have achieved significant scale and growth since our inception in 2015. Our total revenue grew from $22.9 million in 2019 to $40.8 million in 2021, at a CAGR of 33.3%. The number of brands in our brand portfolio increased from 239 as of December 31, 2019 to 444 as of December 31, 2021 at a CAGR of 36.3%. We expect that our revenue growth rate will decline as our revenue increases to higher levels in the future. In particular, we believe that the growth of our revenue depends on a number of factors, in particular our ability to:

 

63

 

•

deepen our penetration into the top 20 beauty groups;

​

•

expand our reach among the indie beauty brands;

​

•

expand our product portfolio coverage to new industries, such as fashion and clothing;

​

•

enhance data and machine learning technologies to advance our platform; and

​

•

pursue strategic alliances, investments and acquisition opportunities across categories and geographies.

​

Given our limited operating history and the rapidly evolving nature of AR- and AI-beauty technologies and fashion tech markets, we may not be able to accomplish any of our objectives. In addition, our historical rapid growth has placed and may continue to place significant demands on our management and our operational and financial resources. Our employee headcount and the scope and complexity of our business have increased significantly, with the number of full-time employees increasing from 217 as of December 31, 2019 to 295 as of June 30, 2022. We expect headcount growth to continue for the foreseeable future. As the number of brands, users of our mobile apps and transactions and the amount of data that our infrastructure supports continue to grow, we will need to improve our operational, financial and management controls as well as our reporting systems and procedures. The growth and expansion of our business and products create significant challenges for our management and constrain operational and financial resources. We will require capital expenditures and allocation of valuable management resources to grow and change in these areas and implement more complex organizational management structures. In addition, we may also find it increasingly difficult to maintain the benefits of our corporate culture, including our ability to quickly develop and launch new and innovative products and execute our growth strategies. If we fail to adequately address any of the challenges and manage our growth effectively, our overall business performance and our business may be seriously harmed.

Any businesses we will invest in or acquire may not perform as expected or be successfully integrated.

Although we focused on organic growth in the past, as part of our business strategy, we expect to invest in or acquire companies, form joint ventures, and acquire complementary assets or technologies. Competition within our industry for investments in and acquisitions of businesses, technologies, and assets is intense. Even if we are able to identify a target for investment or acquisition, we may not be able to complete the transaction on commercially reasonable terms, we may not be able to receive approval under anti-monopoly and competition laws, or the target may choose to enter into a transaction with another party, which could be our competitor.

In addition, businesses we will invest in or acquire may not perform as well as we expect. Failure to manage and successfully integrate acquired businesses and technologies, including managing any privacy or data security risks associated with such acquisitions, may harm our operating results and expansion prospects. The process of integrating an acquired company, business, or technology or acquired personnel into our company, as well as the performance of an acquired company, business, or technology or acquired personnel, are subject to various risks and challenges, including:

•

diverting management time and focus from operating our business;

​

•

disrupting our ongoing business operations;

​

•

customer acceptance of the acquired company’s offerings;

​

•

implementing or remediating the controls, procedures, and policies of the acquired company;

​

•

integrating the acquired business onto our systems and ensuring the acquired business meets our financial reporting requirements and timelines;

​

•

retaining and integrating acquired employees, including aligning incentives between acquired employees and existing employees, as well as managing costs associated with eliminating redundancies or transferring employees on acceptable terms with minimal business disruption;

​

•

maintaining important business relationships and contracts of the acquired business;

​

•

liability for pre-acquisition activities of the acquired company;

​

 

64

 

•

litigation or other claims or liabilities arising in connection with the acquired company;

​

•

impairment charges associated with goodwill, investments, and other acquired intangible assets; and

​

•

other unforeseen operating difficulties and expenditures.

​

We cannot predict whether any strategic investment or acquisition will be accretive to the value of our ordinary shares. It is also possible that any of our future strategic transactions could be viewed negatively by the press, investors, customers or regulators, or subject to regulatory inquiries or proceedings, which may adversely affect our reputation, business, financial condition and prospects.

Our forecasts and projections are based upon assumptions, analyses and internal estimates developed by our management. If these assumptions, analyses or estimates prove to be incorrect or inaccurate, our actual operating results may differ materially and adversely from those forecasted or projected.

Our forecasts and projections are subject to significant uncertainty and are based on assumptions, analyses and internal estimates developed by our management, any or all of which may not prove to be correct or accurate. If these assumptions, analyses or estimates prove to be incorrect or inaccurate, our actual operating results may differ materially and adversely from those forecasted or projected. We believe that the assumptions in the forecasts and projections were reasonable at the time such information was prepared, given the information we had at the time. In particular, the prospective financial information was prepared by our management based on estimates and assumptions believed to be reasonable with respect to the expected future financial performance of Perfect on February 4, 2022, which do not take into account any circumstances or events occurring after February 4, 2022. These prospective financial information incorporates certain financial and operational assumptions, including, but not limited to, future industry performance, general business, economic, market and financial conditions and matters specific to the business of Perfect.

However, the assumptions that underlie the prospective financial information are preliminary and there can be no assurance that our actual results will be in line with our expectations. The prospective financial information covers multiple years and such financial projections, by their nature, become subject to greater uncertainty with each succeeding year. In addition, whether actual operating and financial results and business developments will be consistent with our expectations and assumptions as reflected in our forecast depends on various factors, many of which are outside our control, including but not limited to those stated elsewhere in this “Risk Factors” section and the following:

•

our ability to effectively manage growth;

​

•

changes in our strategy, future operations, financial position, estimated revenue and losses, forecasts, projected costs, prospects and plans;

​

•

our ability to satisfy future capital requirements;

​

•

changes in demand for our services, customer preferences and spending habits;

​

•

our ability to provide highly useful, reliable and innovative services to our customers;

​

•

our ability to attract new customers, retain existing customers, expand service offerings with existing customers, or identify areas of higher growth;

​

•

our ability to successfully identify acquisition opportunities, make acquisitions on terms that are commercially satisfactory, successfully integrate potential acquired businesses and services, and subsequently grow acquired businesses;

​

•

our ability to operate with the challenges in relation to COVID-19, including business closure and other social or travel restrictions;

​

•

our ability to retain existing key management, to integrate recent hires and to attract, retain and motivate qualified personnel; and

​

•

changes in government policies and regulations.

​

 

65

 

Unfavorable changes in any of these or other factors, most of which are beyond our control, could adversely affect business, financial condition and results of operations of Perfect and cause the actual results of Perfect to differ materially from that contained in this proxy statement/prospectus.

The forecasts and projections also reflect assumptions as to certain business decisions that are subject to change. The forecasts and projections were not prepared with a view toward public disclosure or with a view toward complying with the guidelines of the SEC, or the guidelines established by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants with respect to the forecasts and projections, but, in the view of our management, was prepared on a reasonable basis, reflects the best currently available estimates and judgments, and presents, to the best of management’s knowledge and belief, the expected course of action and the expected future financial performance of Perfect. However, such information is not historical fact and should not be relied upon as being necessarily indicative of future results.

The projections and forecasts were prepared based on numerous variables and assumptions that are inherently uncertain and may be beyond the control of our management. Neither our independent auditors, nor any other independent accountants, have compiled, examined or performed any procedures with respect to the projections and forecasts, nor have they expressed any opinion or any other form of assurance on such information or its achievability, and assume no responsibility for, and disclaim any association with, the forecasts and projections. There can be no assurance that our financial condition will be consistent with those set forth in such projections and forecasts, which could have an adverse impact on the market price of Perfect Class A Ordinary Shares or the financial position of the post-Business Combination entity.

We may fail to compete effectively or maintain market leadership in the markets in which we currently operate or expand into.

The AR- and AI-beauty technologies and fashion tech markets are rapidly evolving. Our current primary competition comes from companies that offer products and services that compete with some but not all of the functionality present on our platform, and there may be an increasing number of similar solutions offered by additional competitors in the future. Our current and potential competitors may also develop and market new technologies and products that render our existing or future products less competitive, unmarketable or obsolete. For example, the mobile device manufacturers may enhance the built-in camera apps in their smartphones with AR- and AI-technologies providing similar functionality of our mobile apps, which may render our YouCam apps redundant. Similarly, brands may develop their own AR- and AI-beauty technology solutions in-house. If an increasing number of products with similar or even superior functionality to our products are introduced to the market, we may need to decrease the prices for our products and services in order to remain competitive and, as a result, our margins will be reduced and our operating results will be negatively affected. The introduction of new technologies and the influx of new entrants into the markets may intensify competition in the future, which could harm our business and our ability to increase revenues, increase or maintain brand portfolio and consumer base and maintain our prices.

Our current operations are international in scope, and we plan to further expand globally. If we fail to meet the challenges presented by our increasingly globalized operations, our business may be materially and adversely affected.

Our business operations are international in scope, with approximately 50% of our revenue coming from United States in North America, 11% coming from Japan in Asia, and 8% coming from France in 2021. We intend to continue to expand our operations internationally, and develop strategies to address new international markets. However, global expansion has required and will continue to require considerable management attention as well as financial and other resources. We expect to face particular challenges in global expansion and operations including:

•

increased costs associated with developing solutions and products and providing support in different languages;

​

•

increased costs in marketing and advertising to promote our products effectively in different markets;

​

 

66

 

•

localizing our products, services, content and features to ensure that they are culturally attuned to the different markets;

​

•

increased competition from competitors that have strong positions in particular markets;

​

•

increased costs associated with recruiting and retaining talented and capable employees in foreign countries and maintaining our company culture across all of our offices;

​

•

greater difficulty in receiving payments from different geographies, including difficulties associated with exchange rate fluctuations, transfer of funds, longer cycles for payment and collecting accounts receivable, especially in emerging markets;

​

•

compliance with applicable foreign laws and regulations, including laws and regulations with respect to economic sanctions and export controls, anti-corruption, anti-bribery and anti-kickback, data privacy, cybersecurity and consumer protection that may conflict with local customs and practices in some jurisdictions in which we operate, and the risk of penalties if our practices are deemed not to be in compliance;

​

•

more stringent regulations relating to privacy and data security and the unauthorized use of, or access to, commercial and personal information, particularly in Europe and other jurisdictions;

​

•

limited or insufficient intellectual property protection or difficulties enforcing our rights to intellectual property;

​

•

political, social and economic instability in some countries;

​

•

exposure to different tax jurisdictions and potential adverse tax consequences; and

​

•

related stay-at-home, business closure, and other restrictive orders and travel restrictions associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.

​

If we are unable to successfully manage the complexity of our global operations and deal with the related challenges and risks, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected.

Our sales cycle for brands and retailers can be long and unpredictable, and our sales efforts require considerable time and expenses.

Due to the length and unpredictability of the sales cycle for brands and retailers, it is difficult to predict the timing of our sales and related revenue recognition. The typical length of our sales cycle for brands and retailers, from initial evaluation to payment, is between two and eight months but can vary substantially from brand to brand. Given that these brands and retailers often view implementation of our solutions as a strategic decision and significant investment, they often require considerable time to evaluate, test and qualify our product offerings prior to entering into or expanding a subscription. During the sales cycle, we often need to spend significant time and resources to better educate and familiarize the potential brands and retailers with the value proposition of our products and services as well as on sales and marketing and contract negotiation activities. Such lengthy sales cycle for the evaluation and implementation of our solutions, in particular for highly customized applications, may cause a delay between increasing operating expenses for such sales efforts and generation of corresponding revenue upon successful sales. Additional factors that may influence the length and variability of our sales cycle to brands and retailers include:

•

effectiveness of our sales force, in particular new sales people as we increase the size of our sales force;

​

•

obstacles placed by their procurement process;

​

•

their integration complexity;

​

•

their familiarity with the AI and AR technologies; and

​

•

economic conditions and other factors impacting their budgets.

​

Given these factors, it is difficult to predict whether and when a sale will be completed, and when revenue from a sale will be recognized and reflected in our results of operations.

 

67

 

We make selective investments in new products and services and enhancement to our existing products and services which may not be successful and may not achieve expected returns.

Our ability to engage, retain and increase our partnerships with brands and to increase our revenue will depend heavily on our ability to continue to evolve our existing products and services to create new innovative products and services, both independently and together with third parties. We may introduce significant changes to our existing products and services or develop and introduce new and unproven products and services, including technologies with which we have little or no prior development or operating experience. For example, we are currently developing fashion technology products related to eyewear, nail design, watches, accessories and jewelry, and we also plan to further expand to areas beyond fashion, including providing solutions for dental and orthodontics services, plastic surgery and video conferencing. We do not have significant experience in these industries and areas, which may adversely affect our ability to successfully develop and market these products and technologies. We may incur substantial costs, and may not be successful in generating profits, in connection with these efforts. In addition, the introduction of new products and services, or changes to existing products and services, may result in new or enhanced governmental or regulatory scrutiny, litigation or other complications that could adversely affect our reputation, business and operating results.

We also aim to continuously create new premium features and content, and innovate and improve on our existing products. Although we believe that these efforts are likely to benefit the aggregate consumer experience and improve our financial performance over the long term, we may experience disruptions or declines in our MAUs or user activity if new features cause technical issues that diminish the performance or attractiveness of our mobile apps. Product innovation is inherently volatile and uncertain, and if our new or enhanced products fail to engage our users, advertisers or partners, or if we fail to give our users meaningful reasons to return to our mobile apps, we may fail to attract or retain users or to generate sufficient revenue, operating margin or other value to justify our investments, any of which may seriously harm our business in the short term, long term or both.

Given that a small number of business partners contribute to a significant portion of our revenues, our business and results of operations could be materially and adversely affected if we were to lose a significant business partner or a significant portion of its business.

Currently, a limited number of business partners contribute a significant portion of our revenues. Our business partners primarily comprise top global beauty brands. In 2019, 2020 and 2021, our five largest business partners in aggregate contributed approximately 49%, 40% and 32% of our revenues, respectively. We expect that a limited number of our business partners will continue to contribute a significant portion of our revenues in the near future. If we lose any of these business partners, or if revenues generated from a significant business partner are substantially reduced due to, for example, increased competition, in-house development, a material change in the business partner’s operations, breach of contract or policy, any deterioration in our relationship with business partners, our business, financial condition and results of operations may be materially and adversely affected.

We rely primarily on certain app stores and similar digital platforms, such as the Apple App Store and Google Play, for downloads of YouCam and our other apps, as well as for payment processing, and any interruption or deterioration in our relationship with such entities may negatively impact our business.

We currently rely on third-party digital distribution platforms, primarily Apple App Store and Google Play, as the channels for downloads of our mobile apps including YouCam, as well as the processing of payments for our products and services. We expect to continue to rely on Apple App Store and Google Play for downloads of our mobile apps, as well as most of the payment processing for our products and services. Accordingly, we believe that maintaining successful partnerships with Apple and Google is critical to our success.

The operating policies of Apple or Google will affect the accessibility of our products and services. The promotion, distribution and operation of our mobile apps are subject to distribution platforms’ standard terms and policies for apps developers, which are subject to the interpretation of, and frequent changes by, these distribution platforms. If Apple App Store, Google Play or any of the major distribution platforms change their respective standard terms and conditions, application review policy or application

 

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enforcement guidelines in a manner that is detrimental to us, suspend our access to the platforms or terminate their existing relationship with us, our business, financial condition and results of operations may be materially and adversely affected. For example, Apple App Store and/or Google Play may adjust the categories of application on their distribution platforms and remove the type(s) of our mobile apps, which would significantly limit or even cut off the distribution of our mobile apps. In addition, our pricing strategy is affected by changes in the payment processing fees charged by Apple or Google. If we are unable to pass along any increases in the payment processing fees charged by Apple or Google to our users on a timely basis, or if the paying user engagement decreases due to a price increase, our net revenue or profit margin may be negatively affected. If we fail to maintain good relationships with Apple or Google, it may adversely impact our ability to continue to offer our products and services or effect payment processing, which in turn could have a material adverse impact on our business.

We depend on the continuing efforts of our founders, senior management team and key personnel, and our business operations may be negatively affected if we lose their services.

We currently depend on the continued services and performance of our founders and other key personnel, including Alice H. Chang, our founder and CEO. Our future success will depend on the continued service of our key personnel who possess significant expertise and knowledge of our industry. In addition, many of our key technologies and products are custom-made for our business by our personnel. The loss of key personnel, including members of management, as well as key engineering, product development, marketing and sales personnel, could disrupt our operations and have an adverse effect on our reputation and business. As we grow, we cannot guarantee that we will continue to attract and retain the personnel needed to maintain our competitive position. In particular, we intend to continue to hire a significant number of technical personnel in the foreseeable future, and we expect to continue to face significant challenges in hiring such personnel. Moreover, if our reputation were to be harmed, whether as a result of media, legislative or regulatory scrutiny or otherwise, it could make it more difficult to attract and retain personnel that are critical to the success of our business.

As we continue to grow and mature our business, or if our stock price declines, the incentives to attract, retain and motivate employees provided by our equity awards or by future arrangements may not be as effective as in the past. Additionally, if we issue significant equity to attract additional employees or to retain our existing employees, we would incur substantial additional share-based compensation expense, and the ownership of our existing shareholders would be further diluted. As a result, it may be difficult for us to continue to retain and motivate certain employees, and this wealth could affect their decision about whether they continue to work for us. If we do not succeed in attracting, hiring and integrating excellent personnel, or retaining and motivating existing personnel, we may be unable to grow effectively and our reputation and business could be seriously harmed.

If we are not able to maintain and enhance our brand awareness, our business and operating results may be materially and adversely affected.

We believe that our business brands, including the brands of our mobile apps such as YouCam, have significantly contributed to the success of our business. We also believe that maintaining and enhancing our business brands is critical to expanding our base of users, advertisers and brand partners. Many of new users of our mobile apps are referred by existing users. Maintaining and enhancing our business brands will depend largely on our ability to continue to provide useful, reliable, trustworthy and innovative products and technologies, which may not always be successful or timely. We may introduce new products or terms of service or policies that users do not like, which may negatively affect our business brands. Additionally, the actions of our developers or advertisers may affect our business brands if consumers do not have a positive experience interacting with third parties, including advertisers and platform distributors, through our products and services. We will also continue to experience media, legislative or regulatory scrutiny of our actions or decisions regarding consumer privacy, data use, encryption, content, advertising, competition, security and other issues. Our business brands may also be negatively affected by attacks from our competitors, by negative publicity about the actions of consumers that are deemed to be hostile, illegal or inappropriate to other consumers, by third-party content providers acting inappropriately, by any regulatory developments designed to address such risks, or due to legal proceedings or investigations. Maintaining and enhancing our business brands may require us to make substantial investments, which may not be successful. If we fail

 

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to successfully promote and maintain our brand awareness or if we incur excessive expenses in this effort, our business, financial condition and results of operations may be adversely affected.

User misconduct and misuse of our mobile apps or any non-compliance of third parties that we conduct business with may adversely impact our brand image and reputation, and we may be held liable for information or content displayed on, retrieved from or linked to our products and services, which may materially and adversely affect our business and operating results.

We may face claims relating to information that is published or made available on our products. Our mobile apps, in particular YouCam Makeup and YouCam Perfect, have the attributes of social media and may be misused by individuals or groups of individuals to engage in inappropriate or illegal activities. We have implemented control procedures, and have an internal team that monitors the content uploaded by users. While these procedures aim to detect and block illegal, fraudulent, violent, pornographic or other inappropriate content or activities conducted through the misuse of our mobile apps, particularly those that violate applicable laws and regulations, they may not be able to block all such content uploads or activities in real time due to the time lag between content upload and the inspection by our internal team. In addition, as we are developing our live streaming services on our mobile apps, it may become more difficult for our internal team to timely detect and block illegal or inappropriate content or activities in the future.

We may not be well protected from liability for third-party actions in all the jurisdictions in which we operate, as local laws vary, and some of them can be unclear or evolving. For example, in the United States, there have been various congressional and executive branch efforts to remove or restrict the scope of the protections available to online platforms under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, and our current protections from liability for third-party content in the United States could decrease or change. We could incur significant costs investigating and defending such claims and, if we are found liable, significant damages or license costs. We could also face fines or orders restricting or blocking our services in particular geographies as a result of content hosted on our services. For example, in June 2020, the Home Ministry in India included our mobile app, YouCam Makeup, on a list of banned applications in the country, which remains in effect, as of the date of this proxy statement/prospectus. If any of these events occurs, we may incur significant costs or be required to make significant changes to our products, business practices or operations and our reputation, business and operating results could be seriously harmed.

Certain of our metrics and other estimates are subject to inherent uncertainties in measurement, and real or perceived inaccuracies in such metrics may harm our reputation and negatively affect our business.

We regularly review metrics, including our MAUs, to evaluate growth trends, measure our performance, and make strategic decisions. These metrics are calculated using internal company data gathered on an analytics platform that we develop and operate and have not been validated by an independent third party. While we believe these metrics are reasonable estimates of our consumer base for the applicable period of measurement, there are inherent challenges in measuring how our products are used across large populations globally. For example, there may be individuals who have multiple accounts. Our consumer metrics are also affected by technology on certain mobile devices that automatically runs in the background of our mobile apps when another phone function is used, and this activity can cause our system to miscount the consumer metrics associated with such account.

Some of our demographic data may be incomplete or inaccurate. If our consumers provide us with incorrect or incomplete information regarding their age or other attributes, then our estimates may prove inaccurate and fail to meet investor or advertiser expectations.

Errors or inaccuracies in our metrics or data could also result in incorrect business decisions and inefficiencies. For instance, if a significant understatement or overstatement of active users were to occur, we may expend resources to implement unnecessary business measures or fail to take required actions to attract a sufficient number of users to satisfy our growth strategies. We believe that we do not capture all data regarding our active users, which may result in understated metrics. This generally occurs due to technical issues. For example, our systems do not record data from a user’s application or when a user opens our mobile apps and contacts our servers but is not recorded as an active user. We continually seek to address these technical issues and improve our accuracy, but given the complexity of the systems involved and the rapidly changing nature of mobile devices and systems, we expect these issues to continue. If advertisers, partners

 

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or investors do not perceive our consumer, geographic, or other demographic metrics to be accurate representations of our consumer base or consumer engagement, or if we discover material inaccuracies in our consumer, geographic or other demographic metrics, our reputation may be seriously harmed, and our advertisers and partners may also be less willing to allocate their budgets or resources to us, which could seriously harm our business.

We may require additional capital to support our operations and the growth of our business, and we cannot be certain that financing will be available on reasonable terms when required, or at all.

We may need additional financing from time to time to operate or grow our business. For example, Perfect’s capital budget assumes, among others, that (i) the Minimum Available Cash Condition will be satisfied, which is a condition that Perfect has discretion to waive if not satisfied, and (ii) Perfect’s development timeline progresses as planned and corresponding expenditures are consistent with current expectations, both of which are subject to various risks and uncertainties, including those described in this prospectus/​proxy statement. If the Minimum Available Cash Condition cannot be met by Provident and is waived by Perfect, our ability to continue operations in full as planned and continue as a going concern may be significantly limited without obtaining additional financing.

Our ability to obtain additional financing, if and when required, will depend on investor and lender demand, our operating performance, the condition of the capital markets and other factors, and we cannot assure you that additional financing will be available to us on favorable terms, or at all. If we incur additional debt, including drawing on our credit facility, the debt holders would have rights senior to holders of our ordinary shares to make claims on our assets. If we raise additional funds through the issuance of equity securities, our existing shareholders will experience dilution and those new securities may have rights, preference or privileges senior to those of our ordinary shares. If adequate financing is not available on terms satisfactory to us when we require it, our ability to continue to support the operation and growth of our business could be significantly impaired and our operating results may be adversely affected.

We have limited business insurance coverage. Any interruption of our business may result in substantial costs and the diversion of our resources, and cause an adverse impact on our financial condition and results of operations.

We have obtained insurance to cover certain potential risks and liabilities, such as Error and Omission Commercial Insurance, Personal Injury Insurance, Cyber Security Insurance and Director and Officer Insurance for certain businesses we operate. However, consistent with general industry practice, our business insurance is limited and we may not be able to acquire any insurance for all types of risks we face in our operations in all the jurisdictions where we operate. For examples, insurance companies in some of the jurisdictions where we operate offer limited cybersecurity insurance products and/or intellectual property infringement insurance products, if any. We have determined that the costs of insuring for related risks and the difficulties associated with acquiring such insurance on commercially reasonable terms make it impractical for us to have such insurance. Any uninsured damage to our systems, disruption of our business operations, litigation or natural disasters could require us to incur substantial costs and divert our resources, which could have an adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.

Our business depends on attracting and retaining high-quality personnel, and failure to attract or maintain such personnel could adversely affect our business.

Our future success depends on our ability to continue to attract, retain and motivate highly skilled employees, especially talent in artificial intelligence, machine learning and advanced algorithms. Competition for highly skilled personnel in our industry is intense, in particular in the fields of artificial intelligence and data science, and we expect some of our competitors or other participants in the technology industry with access to more substantial resources to pursue top talent aggressively. If we are not able to continue to attract or retain such highly skilled personnel, or maintain our existing personnel, our ability to keep pace with innovation and technological change in our industry may be hindered and our business could be seriously harmed.

 

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Risks Related to Perfect’s Technology, Data Privacy and Intellectual Property

Security breaches, improper access to or disclosure of our data or consumer data, other hacking and phishing attacks on our systems, or other cyberattacks may make our products and solutions to be perceived as not being secure, which could harm our reputation and adversely affect our business.

Mobile malware, viruses, hacking and phishing attacks have become more prevalent and sophisticated in our industry. If our security measures are breached, or if our products and services are subject to attacks or misuse that disrupt or deny the ability of consumers to access our products and services, our products and services may be perceived as not being secure and consumers and advertisers may curtail or stop using our products and services, which could have a material adverse effect on our reputation, business prospects and results of operations.

Our efforts to protect the information that our consumers have shared with us could fail due to the actions of third parties, software bugs or other technical malfunctions, employee error or malfeasance, or other factors. Third parties may attempt to fraudulently induce employees or consumers to disclose information to gain access to our data or our consumers’ data. If any of these events occurs, our or our consumers’ information could be accessed or disclosed improperly. Internally, we have our privacy policy in place that governs how we may use and share the information that our consumers have provided us. However, if third parties such as business partners and advertisers fail to implement adequate data security practices or fail to comply with our terms and policies, our consumers’ data may be improperly accessed or disclosed. Any incidents where our consumers’ information is accessed without authorization, or is improperly used, or incidents that violate our Terms of Service or policies, could damage our reputation and our brand image and diminish our competitive position.

We are subject to data privacy and protection laws and regulations adopted by governmental agencies. Data privacy laws restrict our storage, use, processing, disclosure, transfer and protection of non-public personal information provided to us by our consumers. Violating existing or future regulatory orders or consent decrees could subject us to substantial monetary fines and other penalties that could seriously harm our business. While we strive to protect our consumers’ privacy and comply with all applicable data protection laws and regulations, any failure to do so may result in proceedings or actions against us by affected consumers or government authorities, which could be time-consuming and cause us to incur significant expense and liability or result in orders or consent decrees forcing us to modify our business practices.

In addition, spammers attempt to use our products to send targeted and untargeted spam messages to consumers, which may embarrass or annoy consumers and make our products less consumers friendly. We cannot be certain that the technologies that we have developed to repel spamming attacks will be able to eliminate all spam messages from our products. Our actions to combat spam may also require diversion of significant time and focus from improving our products. As a result of spamming activities, our consumers may use our products less or stop using them altogether. Maintaining the trust of our consumers is important to sustain our growth, retention, and consumer engagement. Negative incidents or dissatisfaction in relation to our products and services regardless of all our efforts, could deter current and potential consumers from using our products and services, which could have material adverse effects on our reputation, growth and consumer engagement, and could seriously harm our operational cost structure.

Our business and operating results may be harmed by any significant service disruptions. If our products and services are subject to attacks or misuse that disrupt or deny the ability of consumers to access our products and services, and we fail to develop enhancements to resolve any defect or other problems or adapt our existing technology and infrastructure, our consumers and partners may curtail or stop using our products and services, which could significantly harm our business.

The success of our broad range of AR- and AI-powered business and consumer solutions is reliant on technology. We currently have 24 SaaS technology solutions and six mobile apps. Our ability to attract and retain consumers largely depends on our ability to maintain and scale our technical infrastructure. We expect to continue to make significant investments to maintain and improve the capacity, capability and reliability of our infrastructure. To the extent that we do not effectively address capacity constraints, upgrade our systems

 

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as needed or continually develop our technology and infrastructure to accommodate actual and anticipated changes in our consumers’ needs, our business, financial condition and results of operations may be harmed.

Our business and operating results, reputation and consumer engagement may be harmed by a disruption in our service due to failures in or changes to our systems, or by our failure to timely and effectively expand and adapt our technology and infrastructure. Our systems may not be adequately designed with the necessary reliability and redundancy to avoid performance delays or outages that could seriously harm our business. We may experience service disruptions, outages and other performance problems due to a variety of factors, including infrastructure changes, human or software errors, hardware failure, capacity constraints due to an overwhelming number of people accessing our products and services simultaneously, computer viruses, denial of service or fraud or security attacks. This would negatively impact our ability to attract consumers, platform partners and advertisers and increase consumer engagement. It is possible that we may fail to effectively scale and grow our technology infrastructure to accommodate increased demands arising from increased consumer traffic. It may also become increasingly difficult to maintain and improve the performance of our products and services, especially during peak usage times, as our products and services become more complex and our consumer traffic increases. In addition, we cannot provide assurance that we will be able to expand our data center infrastructure to meet consumers demand in a timely manner, or on favorable economic terms. If any system failure, interruption or downtime occurs, our business, financial condition and results of operations may be materially and adversely affected.

In addition, a substantial portion of our network infrastructure is provided by third parties, including AWS, Google Cloud and Alibaba Cloud. Any disruption or failure in the services we receive from these providers could harm our ability to handle existing or increased traffic and could significantly harm our business. Any financial or other difficulties these providers face may also adversely affect our business, and we exercise little control over these providers, which increases our vulnerability to problems with the services they provide. In the event of a significant issue with the third-party network infrastructure supporting our network traffic, some of our products and services may become inaccessible or consumers may experience difficulties accessing our products and services. Any disruption or failure in our infrastructure could hinder our ability to handle existing or increased traffic on our platform, which could significantly harm our business.

Our technical infrastructure is also vulnerable to the risk of damage from natural disasters, such as earthquakes and typhoons, as well as from acts of terrorism or other criminal acts. Our services and products also incorporate software that is highly technical and complex. Our software has contained, and may now or in the future contain, undetected errors, bugs or vulnerabilities. Some errors in our software code may only be discovered after the code has been released. In particular, the operation of some of our new businesses implicates complex technological and operational considerations, including technical or systematic issues that may arise in the ordinary course of business. In order to address such technical difficulties, we may need to make fundamental changes to the configurations or of the underlying systems we use or expend a significant amount of time and resources to obtain the technical skills or expertise needed to adequately address such issues. Any such difficulties could have a material impact on our ability to deliver the products and services we intend to offer, reduce our reliability and harm our reputation.

The successful operation of our business also depends upon the performance and reliability of the internet infrastructure in China and the safety of our network and infrastructure. If our AWS, Google Cloud or Alibaba Cloud server code comes across some serious bugs that disrupt the service, many of our online services to clients will be affected. The Service-Level Agreement we have signed with most of our clients requires 99.7% to 99.99% service availability. Failure to meet that requirement will result in penalty, i.e., extra credits or refunds, as provided by the agreements. Furthermore, even if our internet infrastructure is free of bugs, we may encounter unexpected issues solely due to administrative oversight. For example, in April 2019, merely due to our administrative error of missing the filing deadline of our server certificate, our server in China stayed non-functional for about two weeks.

 

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We rely on Google Cloud, AWS and Alibaba Cloud for the vast majority of our computing, storage, bandwidth, and other services. Any service interruption of their operating systems, networks and hardware or other disruptions of or interference with our use of the cloud operation could impair the delivery of our platform and thus negatively affect our operations and harm our business.

Google, Amazon and Alibaba provide distributed computing infrastructure platforms for business operations, or what is commonly referred to as a “cloud” computing service. We currently run the vast majority of our computing on the three platforms, and our systems are not fully redundant on them. We expect to spend $120,000 with Google Cloud over five years, $4,200,000 with Amazon Web Services (“AWS”) over five years beginning October 2021. We have also built our software and computer systems to use computing, storage capabilities, bandwidth, and other services provided by Google, AWS and Alibaba Cloud. Any disruption of or interference with our use of Google Cloud, AWS and Alibaba Cloud would negatively affect our operations and seriously harm our business.

First of all, any transition of the cloud services currently provided by any one of Google, AWS and Alibaba Cloud to the other platform or to another cloud provider would be difficult to implement and will cause us to incur significant time and expense. The level of service provided by Google Cloud, AWS and Alibaba Cloud may also impact our users’, advertisers’, and partners’ usage of and satisfaction with products or services. If our users or partners are not able to access our mobile apps or SaaS or specific features of our products or services, or encounter difficulties in doing so, due to issues or disruptions with Google Cloud, AWS or Alibaba Cloud, or if Google Cloud, AWS or Alibaba Cloud experience interruptions in service regularly or for a prolonged basis, or other similar issues, we may lose users, partners, or advertising revenue and our business would be seriously harmed.

Secondly, each of Google, Amazon and/or Alibaba may take actions beyond our control that could seriously harm our business, including: (i) discontinuing or limiting our access to its cloud platform; (ii) increasing pricing terms; (iii) terminating or seeking to terminate our contractual relationship altogether; (iv) establishing more favorable relationships or pricing terms with one or more of our competitors; and (v) modifying or interpreting its terms of service or other policies in a manner that impacts our ability to run our business and operations. Google, Amazon and Alibaba each has broad discretion to change and interpret its terms of service and other policies with respect to us. If services and products provided by Google, Amazon and Alibaba are limited, restricted, curtailed or degraded in any way, or become unavailable to us or our consumers for any reason, our business may be materially and adversely affected. They may also alter how we are able to process data on their cloud platforms. If Google, Amazon or Alibaba makes changes or has interpretations that are unfavorable to us, our business could be seriously harmed. Hosting costs also have increased and will continue to increase as our consumer base and consumer engagement grows and may seriously harm our business if we are unable to grow our revenues faster than the cost of utilizing the services of Google Cloud, AWS, and Alibaba Cloud.

In addition, we also currently rely on third-party mobile apps distribution channels such as iOS App Store to distribute most of our mobile apps to users. We expect a substantial number of downloads of our mobile apps will continue to be derived from these distribution channels and we expect that we will continue to rely on Apple App Store for downloads of our mobile apps. Accordingly, we believe that maintaining successful partnerships with Apple is critical to our success. If major mobile apps distribution channels change their standard terms and conditions in a manner that is detrimental to us, or terminate their existing relationship with us, our business, financial condition and results of operations may be materially and adversely affected. Moreover, the operating policies of Apple may have an impact on the accessibility of our products and services. If we fail to maintain good relationships with Apple, it may adversely impact our ability to continue to offer our products and services, which in turn could have a material adverse impact on our business.

We rely on third-party proprietary and open source software for our products and services. The inability to obtain third-party licenses for such software, obtain them on favorable terms, or adhere to the license terms or any errors or failures caused by such software could harm our business.

Some of our offerings include software or other intellectual property licensed from third parties. It may be necessary in the future to renew licenses relating to various aspects of these applications or to seek new licenses for existing or new applications. Necessary licenses may not be available on acceptable terms or under

 

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open source licenses permitting redistribution in commercial offerings, if at all. The inability to obtain certain licenses or other rights or to obtain such licenses or rights on favorable terms could result in delays in product releases until equivalent technology can be identified, licensed or developed, if at all, and integrated into our products and services, which could harm our business, results of operations and financial condition.

In addition, third parties may allege that additional licenses are required for our use of their software or intellectual property, which it may be unable to obtain on commercially reasonable terms or at all. The inclusion in our offerings of software or other intellectual property licensed from third parties on a non-exclusive basis could limit our ability to differentiate our offerings from those of our competitors. Failure to properly adhere to the license terms for software or other intellectual property might have negative effects, such as revocation of the license grant, penalties, added license fees or other liabilities. If a distributor of open source software were to allege that we had not complied with our license, we could be required to incur significant legal expenses. Little legal precedent governs the interpretation of these licenses; therefore, the potential impact of these terms on our business is unknown and may result in unanticipated obligations regarding our technologies. To the extent that our products and services depend upon the successful operation of third-party software, any undetected errors or defects in such third-party software could also impair the functionality of our products and services, delay new feature introductions, result in a failure of products and services, and injure our reputation.

In addition, we use open source software in our products and solutions, including various open source libraries in our product development, as well as many development tools or libraries from Apple and Google. We expect to incorporate open source software into other offerings or products in the future. Such open source software is generally licensed by its authors or other third parties under open source licenses. If we inappropriately use or incorporate open source software subject to certain types of open source licenses that challenge the proprietary nature of our software products, we may be required to re-engineer our products, discontinue the sale of our products and solutions or take other remedial actions. From time to time, there have also been claims challenging the ownership of open source software against companies that incorporate open source software into their products. As a result, we could be subject to lawsuits by parties claiming ownership of what we believe to be open source software. Litigation could be costly for us to defend, have a negative effect on our operating results and financial condition or require us to devote additional research and development resources to change our products.

Our business depends upon the interoperability of our platform across devices, operating systems, and third-party applications that we do not control.

Our success depends in part on the interoperability of our products and services with third-party operating systems, applications, data, web browsers and devices, including, but not limited to, mobile-device cameras. We may not be successful in adapting our products and services that operate effectively with these technologies, systems, networks, regulations, or standards and we may not successfully cultivate relationships with key industry participants that operate effectively with these technologies, systems, networks, regulations, or standards. We plan to continue to introduce new products regularly and have experienced that it takes time to optimize such products to function with these operating systems and hardware, impacting the popularity of such products, and we expect this trend to continue. If customers have difficulty accessing and using our products and services (including on mobile devices) or if our products and services cannot connect a broadening range of applications, data and devices, then customer growth and retention may be harmed and our business and operating results could be harmed.

In addition, the owners of those third-party operating systems, such as Google and Apple, each provides consumers with products that compete with ours. Any changes in such operating systems, applications, data, web browsers or devices that degrade the functionality of our products and services or give preferential treatment to competitive services could harm the adoption and usage of our products and services. Our competitors that control the operating systems and related hardware that our mobile apps run on could make interoperability of our products with those mobile operating systems more difficult or display their competitive offerings more prominently than ours.

Moreover, our products require high-bandwidth data capabilities. If the costs of data usage increase, our user growth, retention, and engagement may be seriously harmed. Additionally, to deliver high-quality video and other content over mobile cellular networks, our products must work well with a range of mobile

 

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technologies, systems, networks, regulations, and standards that we do not control. In particular, any future changes to the iOS or Android operating systems may impact the accessibility, speed, functionality, and other performance aspects of our products, which issues are likely to occur in the future from time to time.

Because our YouCam apps are used primarily on mobile devices, effective mobile functionality is a part of our long-term development and growth strategy. The majority of our user engagement with our mobile apps is on smartphones with Android operating systems. As a result, although our products work with iOS mobile devices, we have prioritized development of our products to operate with Android operating systems rather than smartphones with iOS operating systems. To continue growth in user engagement with our mobile apps, we will need to prioritize development of our products to operate on smartphones with iOS operating systems. Given the popularity of smartphones with iOS operating systems, if we are unable to improve operability of our products on smartphones with iOS operating systems, our business could be seriously harmed.

We may incur substantial costs in protecting or defending our intellectual property and any failure to protect our intellectual property could impair our competitive position and the value of our brand and other intangible assets may be diminished.

Effective protection of intellectual property rights is expensive and difficult to maintain, both in terms of application and maintenance costs, as well as the costs of defending and enforcing those rights. Although we have taken measures to protect our proprietary rights, the efforts we have taken to protect our intellectual property rights may not be sufficient or effective, and our intellectual property rights will be sufficient to protect against others offering products or services that are substantially similar to ours and compete with our business. If we are unable to protect our proprietary rights or prevent unauthorized use or appropriation by third parties, the value of our brand and other intangible assets may be diminished, and competitors may be able to more effectively mimic our service and methods of operations. Any of these events could seriously harm our business.

We aim to protect our confidential proprietary information, in part, by entering into confidentiality agreements and invention assignment agreements with all our employees, consultants, advisors, and any third parties who access or contribute to our proprietary know-how, information, or technology. We also rely on trademark, copyright, patent, trade secret, and domain-name-protection laws to protect our proprietary rights. Our trade secrets, trademarks, copyrights, patents and other intellectual property rights are important assets for us. There can be no assurance that we will be able to protect against the unauthorized use of our brand, trademarks or other assets. There is also a risk that one or more of our trademarks could become generic, which could result in them being declared invalid or unenforceable. We rely on, and expect to continue to rely on, a combination of confidentiality and license agreements with our employees, consultants and third parties with whom we have relationships, as well as trademark, trade dress, domain name, copyright, trade secret and patent laws, to protect our brand and other intellectual property rights. Significant impairments of our intellectual property rights, and limitations on our ability to assert our intellectual property rights against others, could harm our business and our ability to compete.

If we need to license or acquire new intellectual property, we may incur substantial costs and in some cases, pending trademark, copyright and patent applications may not be approved. We have filed various applications to protect aspects of our intellectual property, and we currently hold a number of issued patents, trademarks and copyrights in multiple jurisdictions. Effective protection of patents, trademarks and copyrights is expensive and difficult to maintain, both in terms of application and registration costs, as well as the costs of defending and enforcing those rights. We may be required to protect our rights in an increasing number of countries, in a process that is expensive and may not be successful, or which we may not pursue in every country in which our products and services are distributed or made available. In the future, we may acquire additional patents or patent portfolios, which could require significant cash expenditures.

Further, the laws of certain foreign countries provide different levels of protection of corporate proprietary information and assets, such as intellectual property, trade secrets, know-how, and records. We may fail to obtain effective intellectual property protection, or effective intellectual property protection may not be available in every country in which our products and services are available. As a result, we may be exposed to material risks of theft of our proprietary information and other intellectual property, including technical data, manufacturing processes, data sets, or other sensitive information, and we may also encounter

 

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significant problems in protecting and defending our intellectual property or proprietary rights abroad. In any of these cases, we may be required to expend significant time and expense to prevent infringement or to enforce our rights.

We may be subject to intellectual property infringement claims or other allegations by third parties, which may cause substantial costs and materially and adversely affect our business operations.

Companies in the mobile, camera, communication, media, internet, and other technology-related industries own large numbers of patents, copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets, and other intellectual property rights, and frequently enter into litigation based on allegations of infringement, misappropriation, or other violations of intellectual property or other rights. In addition, various “non-practicing entities” that own patents, copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets, and other intellectual property rights often attempt to aggressively assert claims in order to extract payments from technology companies. We may be subject to intellectual property infringement lawsuits that are expensive and time-consuming. If resolved adversely, these lawsuits and claims could result in our payment of substantial damages or license fees, disruption to our product and service offerings and reputational harm.

Furthermore, from time to time we may introduce new products or make other business changes, including in areas where we currently do not compete, which could increase our exposure to patent, copyright, trademark, trade secret, and other intellectual property rights claims from competitors and non-practicing entities. Some of our agreements with advertisers, platform partners and data partners require us to indemnify them for certain intellectual property claims against them, which could require us to incur considerable costs in defending such claims, and may require us to pay significant damages in the event of an adverse ruling. Such advertisers, platform partners and data partners may also discontinue use of our products, services and technologies as a result of injunctions or otherwise, which could result in loss of revenue and adversely impact our business.

We might be subject to claims and legal proceedings from holders of patents, trademarks, copyrights, and other intellectual property rights alleging that some of our products or content infringe their rights. While we believe we have meritorious defenses to these claims, an unfavorable outcome in these lawsuits could seriously harm our business. If these or other matters continue in the future or we need to enter into licensing arrangements, which may not be available to us or on terms favorable to us, it may increase our costs and decrease the value of our products, and our business could be seriously harmed.

In addition, we may have to seek a license to continue practices found to be in violation of a third party’s rights. If we are required or choose to enter into royalty or licensing arrangements, such arrangements may not be available on reasonable terms, or at all, and may significantly increase our operating costs and expenses. As a result, we may also be required to develop or procure alternative non-infringing technology or discontinue use of the technology. The development or procurement of alternative non-infringing technology could require significant effort and expense or may not be feasible.

We may from time to time become a party to litigation, other legal or administrative disputes and proceedings that may materially and adversely affect us.

In the course of our ordinary business operations, we may become a party to litigation, legal proceedings, claims, disputes or arbitration proceedings from time to time. Were any proceedings, claims, disputes or arbitration to arise, these may distract our senior management’s attention and consume our time and other resources. In addition, even if we ultimately succeed in such proceedings, there may be negative publicity created in the course of or surrounding such proceedings, which may materially and adversely affect our reputation. In the case of an adverse verdict, we may be required to pay significant monetary damages, assume significant liabilities or suspend or terminate parts of our operations. As a result, our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects may be materially and adversely affected.

Risks Related to Perfect’s Financial Results

We have incurred operating losses in the past, and our ability to achieve or maintain profitability in the future is uncertain.

We have incurred operating losses before and our future revenue growth and profitability depend on a variety of factors, many of which are beyond our control. Whereas, our operating expenses are expected to

 

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increase in the future as we continue to expend substantial financial resources and as a public company. In addition, we may not be able to obtain additional capital in a timely manner or on acceptable terms, or at all.

We recorded loss for $2.0 million in 2019, $5.6 million in 2020, and $156.9 million in 2021. Even though our revenues have grown over the years, from $22.9 million in 2019 to $29.9 million in 2020, and to $40.8 million in 2021, our revenue growth rate has slowed in recent years and may do so in the future due to a variety of factors. We believe that our future revenue growth will depend on, among other factors, our ability to attract new consumers while retaining current consumers, increase consumer engagement and advertisement engagement, increase our brand awareness, compete effectively, maximize our sales efforts, demonstrate a positive return on investment for advertisers and successfully develop and operate new products and services. Our ability to achieve and sustain profitability is also affected by market and regulatory development related to, among others, mobile apps, online marketing and artificial intelligence. In addition, if we are unable to achieve profitability again, it may become more difficult for us to raise sufficient capital to satisfy our anticipated capital expenditures and other cash needs, in which case our business, results of operations and financial condition may be materially adversely affected. Accordingly, our ability to maintain profitability in the future is uncertain and you should not rely on the revenue growth of any prior quarterly or annual period as an indication of our future revenue growth.

We expect our operating expenses to increase in future periods as we continue to expend substantial financial resources on: (i) marketing and sales; (ii) global expansion; (iii) our technology infrastructure; (iv) attracting and retaining talented employees; (v) strategic opportunities, including operation of newly developed or newly acquired businesses; and (vi) general administration, including personnel costs and legal and accounting expenses related to being a public company. These investments, while increasing our expenses, may not result in an increase in revenues or growth in our business. If we are unable to achieve adequate revenue growth and to manage our expenses, we may incur significant losses in the future.

In addition, we expect to increase costs as a result of being a public company, and the costs may continue to increase in the future. As a public company, we will incur significant legal, accounting and other expenses that we did not incur as a private company. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, as well as rules subsequently implemented by the SEC and the Nasdaq, impose various requirements on the corporate governance practices of public companies. These rules and regulations increase our legal and financial compliance costs and some corporate activities are more time-consuming and costly. For example, in comparison with a private company, we will need an increased number of independent directors and have to adopt policies regarding internal controls and disclosure controls and procedures. In addition, we will incur additional costs associated with public company reporting requirements. We expect to incur significant expenses and devote substantial management effort toward ensuring compliance with the requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 and the other rules and regulations of the SEC and the Nasdaq.

We recognize revenue from SaaS subscriptions to our products over the terms of these subscriptions. Increases or decreases in new sales may not be immediately reflected in our results of operations and may be difficult to discern.

For the nature of our company, we recognize revenue from SaaS subscriptions to our products ratably according to the terms of these subscriptions. Consequently, a portion of the revenue we report in each period is derived from the recognition of deferred revenue relating to SaaS subscriptions entered into during previous quarters. As a result, a decline in new or renewed SaaS subscriptions in any single reporting period may have a small impact on the revenue that we recognize for such quarter. Whereas, such a decline will negatively affect our revenue in future quarters. As such, the effect of significant downturns in sales and potential changes in our pricing policies or rate of customer expansion or retention may not be fully reflected in our results of operations until future periods. In addition, our SaaS subscription-based revenue model also makes it difficult for us to rapidly increase our revenue through additional sales in any period, as revenue from new customers or existing customers that increase their use of our products or upgrade to higher-priced products or product tiers must be recognized over the applicable SaaS subscription term. Finally, a significant portion of our costs are expensed as incurred, while revenue is recognized over the term of the SaaS subscription. As a result, growth in the number of new customers and hosts has continued, and can continue, to result in our recognition of higher costs and lower revenue in the earlier periods of our SaaS subscriptions.

 

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Our financial results are likely to fluctuate from period to period due to seasonality and a variety of other factors, which makes our period-to-period results volatile and difficult to predict.

Our semi-annual financial results have fluctuated in the past and are likely to fluctuate in the future. As a result, you should not rely upon our past periodic financial results as indicators of future performance. You should also take into account the risks and uncertainties frequently encountered by companies in rapidly evolving markets. Our financial results in any given period can be influenced by numerous factors occurring in a particular period, many of which we are unable to predict or are outside of our control, including:

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development and introduction of new products or services by us or our competitors and the market reaction to such new products or services;

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our ability to renew our subscriptions with, and expand sales of our products and solutions to, our existing brand in our portfolio;

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ability of our data service providers to scale effectively and timely to provide the necessary technical infrastructure to offer our services;

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growth and diversification of our revenue sources;

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increases in marketing, sales and other operating expenses that we may incur to grow and expand our operations and to remain competitive;

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changes in budgets of brands and retailers and in the timing of their budget cycles and purchasing decisions, including cost-cutting measures or other effects of the COVID-19 pandemic;

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seasonal fluctuations in spending by brands. Historically, the fourth quarter has typically been the quarter with the largest bookings from brands and retailers, which impacts revenue, unbilled revenue, deferred revenue, accounts receivable and amortized commissions in future periods;

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system failures or breaches of security or privacy of our system;

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amount and timing of non-cash expenses, including stock-based compensation, goodwill impairments and other non-cash charges;

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impact of new accounting pronouncements;

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unforeseen contingencies, such as adverse litigation judgments, settlements or other litigation-related costs;

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fluctuations in currency exchange rates and changes in the proportion of our revenue and expenses denominated in foreign currencies;

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changes in laws and regulations that affect our business; and

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changes in business or macroeconomic conditions, including the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Changes in subjective assumptions, estimates and judgments by our management related to complex accounting matters or changes in the IFRS could significantly affect our financial condition and results of operations.

IFRS and related pronouncements, implementation guidelines, and interpretations apply to a wide range of matters that will be relevant to our business, including revenue recognition, financial instruments, stock-based compensation, deferred commissions and business combinations. These matters are complex and will involve subjective assumptions, estimates, and judgments by our management. Changes in IFRS, relevant accounting pronouncements or interpretation or changes in underlying assumptions, estimates, or judgments by our management, the International Accounting Standards Board, the SEC and others could significantly change our reported or expected financial performance, which could impact the market price of our securities.

Examinations by relevant tax authorities may result in material changes in reserves for tax positions taken in previously filed tax returns or may impact the valuation of certain deferred income tax assets.

Based on the outcome of examinations by relevant tax authorities, or as a result of the expiration of statutes of limitations for specific jurisdictions, it is possible that the reserves for tax positions taken in

 

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previously filed tax returns will materially change from those recorded in our financial statements. In addition, the outcome of examinations may impact the valuation of certain deferred income tax assets (such as NOL carryforwards) in future periods. It is not possible to estimate the impact of such changes, if any, to the reserves for uncertain tax positions.

Our costs are growing rapidly and may increase faster than our revenue, which could seriously harm our business or increase our losses.

As our business continues to grow, we expect our expenses to grow in the future. Historically, our costs have increased each year due to several factors, including growth of our brand portfolio and consumer base, an increase in the level of consumer engagement, development and implementation of new product features, enhancement of our technology infrastructure and hiring of additional personnel at a rapid pace to support potential future growth. We expect to continue to incur increasing costs due to these factors to expand our operation and remain competitive. In addition, we expect to continue to invest in our global infrastructure to expand our product offering to a more global consumer base, including in countries where we do not expect significant short-term monetization, if any. Our expenses may be greater than we anticipate, and our investments may outpace monetization efforts. Such increase in our costs without a corresponding growth in our revenue would increase our losses and could seriously harm our business.

Risks Related to Laws and Regulations

Our business is subject to complex and evolving domestic and international laws and regulations regarding privacy and data protection. These laws and regulations are subject to change and uncertain interpretation, which could result in claims, changes to our data and other business practices, regulatory investigations, monetary penalties, increased cost of operations, or declines in consumer growth or engagement, or otherwise harm our business.

Regulatory authorities and governments around the world have implemented and are considering further legislative and regulatory proposals regarding privacy and data protection. New laws and regulations governing new areas of data protection or imposing more stringent requirements may be introduced in various jurisdictions, including the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom and the PRC, in which we conduct business or where we may expand. In addition, the interpretation and application of consumer and data protection laws in such jurisdictions are often uncertain, complicated and subject to change, including differentiated requirements for different groups of people or different types of data. It is possible that existing or newly introduced laws and regulations, or their interpretation, application or enforcement, could significantly affect the value of the data collected and generated by us during operation, force us to change our data and other business practices and cause us to incur significant compliance costs.

In the United States, various federal and state regulators, including governmental agencies like the Federal Trade Commission, or the FTC, have adopted, or are considering adopting, laws and regulations concerning privacy and data protection, such as the Biometric Information Privacy Act in Illinois (the “BIPA”), which has restricted the collection and use of biometric identifiers and biometric information. Several class action lawsuits have been brought under BIPA, as the statute is broad and still being interpreted by the courts. Certain of our customers have been alleged for violating the BIPA through deploying our product and technology, including virtual try-on solutions that may be perceived as subject to these laws and regulations. We may in the future become subject to litigation and we may also become subject to government enforcement actions, damages and penalties under these laws, which could adversely affect our business, results of operations and our financial condition. Certain state laws may be more stringent or broader in scope, or offer greater individual rights, with respect to personal information than federal, international or other state laws, and such laws may differ from each other, all of which may complicate compliance efforts.

The GDPR, which became effective in May 2018, greatly increased the European Commission’s jurisdictional reach of its laws and adds a broad array of requirements for handling personal data (including online identifiers and location data). EU member states are tasked under the GDPR to enact, and have enacted, certain implementing legislation that adds to and/or further interprets the GDPR requirements and

 

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potentially extends our obligations and potential liability for failing to meet such obligations. The GDPR, together with national legislation, regulations and guidelines of the EU member states and the United Kingdom governing the processing of personal data, impose strict obligations and restrictions on the ability to collect, use, retain, protect, disclose, transfer and otherwise process personal data. In particular, the GDPR includes obligations and restrictions concerning the consent and rights of individuals to whom the personal data relates, the transfer of personal data out of the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom, security breach notifications and the security and confidentiality of personal data. The GDPR authorizes fines for certain violations of up to 4% of global annual revenue or €20 million, whichever is greater. In addition, some countries are considering or have passed legislation implementing data protection requirements or requiring local storage and processing of data or similar requirements that could increase the cost and complexity of delivering our services.

The PRC regulatory and enforcement regime with regard to privacy and data security is evolving. Over the last decade, China has been putting great emphasis on cybersecurity administration, which is considered an essential part of national security. In 2016, the Cyberspace Administration of China issued the State Cyberspace Security Strategy, stressing again the importance of cybersecurity as well as national security. The National Security Law of the People’s Republic of China has been cited as the legal accordance for certain cybersecurity and data protection regulations. In addition, the newly amended Civil Code of the People’s Republic of China, effective as of January 1, 2021, specifically set a separate chapter for privacy and personal information protection, setting the fundamental principles for personal information protection. Systematically, the Cybersecurity Law of the People’s Republic of China, or the CSL, was enacted on June 1, 2017, and forms the backbone of cybersecurity and data privacy protection legislation in the PRC. On June 10, 2021, the Data Security Law of the People’s Republic of China, or the DSL, was adopted at the 29th Session of the Standing Committee of the 13th National People’s Congress and became effective as of September 1, 2021. The DSL is the fundamental law in the data security area that widely covers data security mechanisms, obligations, and liabilities at both state administration and data handler levels. On August 20, 2021, the Personal Information Protection Law of the People’s Republic of China, or the PIPL, was adopted at the 30th Session of the Standing Committee of the 13th National People’s Congress and became effective as of November 1, 2021, which represents new era of personal information protection as well as corporate compliance in the PRC. The DSL, the PIPL and the CSL constitute the three fundamental pillars of Chinese data protection legislation, and together with various systematic supplemental regulations, measures, and standards, form the cybersecurity and data protection legislative framework in China. Governmental authorities are putting great focus on data protection enforcement. Violations of data protection laws may lead to administrative penalties, including warnings, orders for rectification, suspension or termination of related businesses issued by competent authorities, revocation of business permits or licenses, or monetary fines (of up to 50 million RMB or 5% of annual turnover); civil liabilities including compensation for infringement upon legitimate rights and interests of individuals and public interests litigation by the People’s Procuratorate depending on the severity and impact of the case; and even criminal liabilities in more severe cases.

The collection, process, and use of personal data in Taiwan is primarily subject to the Personal Data Protection Act (the “PDPA”) and the Enforcement Rules as well as other applicable rulings or regulations issued by the relevant competent authorities, in particular the sectoral rules on the security maintenance plans stipulated by the regulator of different industries. The PDPA applies in principles all of data collection and processing activities taking place in Taiwan without regard to whether the data subjects are Taiwanese nationals or not. Pursuant to the PDPA, violating PDPA with an intent to make unlawful profit for oneself or a third party or with an intent to damage the interest of another may lead to criminal penalties. In addition, an administrative fine may be imposed for failure to comply with the requirements under the PDPA, such as the collecting or processing of personal data without a statutory ground, using personal data outside of the scope of the specified purpose under which the personal data was collected, or failure to comply with restrictions on the cross border transfer of personal data. For any failure to comply with the notification requirements, marketing restrictions, information security requirements, or obligations to respond to data subjects’ requests, the authority may order that correction be made by a certain deadline and impose an administrative fine if correction is not made within such deadline.

As we further grow our business and expand into other markets, we will be subject to additional laws and regulations in other jurisdictions where we operate and where our brand partners and users are located.

 

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The laws, rules and regulations of other jurisdictions may be more comprehensive, detailed and nuanced in their scope, and may impose requirements and penalties that conflict with, or are more stringent than, those we encounter in our current markets. In addition, such laws, rules and regulations may restrict the transfer of data across jurisdictions, which could impose additional and substantial operational, administrative and compliance burdens on us, and may also restrict our business activities and expansion plans, as well as impede our data-driven business strategies. Complying with laws and regulations for an increasing number of jurisdictions could require significant resources and costs, including those associated with adapting our products and solutions. Any failure, or perceived failure, by us to comply with the above and other regulatory requirements or privacy and data protection-related laws, rules and regulations could result in reputational damages or proceedings or actions against us by governmental entities, consumers or other parties. Such proceedings or actions could subject us to significant penalties and negative publicity, require us to change our data and other business practices, increase our costs and severely disrupt our business or hinder our global expansion.

Any amendments to existing tax regulations or the implementation of any new tax laws in Taiwan, the United States or other jurisdictions in which we operate our business may have an adverse effect on our business and profitability.

While we are subject to tax laws and regulations in various jurisdictions in which we operate or conduct business, our principal operations are in Taiwan, and we are exposed primarily to taxes levied by the Taiwan government. Any unfavorable changes of tax laws and regulations in this jurisdiction could increase our effective tax rate and have an adverse effect on our operating results.

Foreign government initiatives to restrict or ban access to our products in their countries could seriously harm our business.

Foreign governments may censor or restrict access to our YouCam apps in their countries, require data localization, or impose other laws or regulations that would be difficult or even impossible for us to comply with, or would require us to rebuild our products or the infrastructure for our products. For example, our YouCam Makeup App has been banned in India since June 2020. The Indian authorities rejected our several appeals on the basis that YouCam Makeup App caused certain national security concerns under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000 of India, but they did not provide any detailed explanation for this ban or the subsequent rejections of our appeals. Any restriction on access to YouCam apps due to foreign government actions or initiatives, or any withdrawal by us from certain countries because of such actions or initiatives, would adversely affect our MAUs, including by giving our competitors an opportunity to penetrate geographic markets that we cannot access. As a result, our consumer growth, retention, and engagement may be seriously harmed, and we may not be able to maintain or grow our revenue as anticipated and our business could be seriously harmed.

Many of our customers deploy our products and solutions globally and we could be held liable in some jurisdictions in which we operate for content posted by our consumers, which could expose us to damages or other legal liability.

Our platform allows our consumers to post content globally. Although Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act provides immunity, subject to certain conditions, to certain online platforms from claims related to third-party content, the law relating to the liability of online service providers for others’ activities on their services may change and our current protections from liability for third-party content in the United States could decrease or change as a result. Claims may be brought against us for defamation, negligence, breach of contract, copyright and trademark infringement, unfair competition, unlawful activity, torts, fraud, or other legal theories based on the nature and content of information available on or via our platform.

We may be subject to claims by virtue of our involvement in hosting, transmitting or providing access to content created by third parties. Defense of any such actions could be costly and involve significant time and attention of our management and other resources, may result in monetary liabilities or penalties, or may require us to change our business in an adverse manner. If the content displayed on our platform is found

 

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