The desire for beauty is universal. Ingredients like pro-xylane, copper peptide, acetyl hexapeptide, decarboxy carnosine, and nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN) are now essential to anti-aging skincare, capturing attention from beauty enthusiasts and becoming prized assets for major skincare brands.
However, the high costs associated with producing these active ingredients keep prices elevated. Some key ingredients are priced in the tens of thousands of RMB per kilogram, resulting in end products that bear hefty price tags.
Readline is a biotech startup that’s aiming to break the mold. Founded in 2017 in Shenzhen, Readline uses synthetic biology to drive down the prices of these crucial ingredients without compromising quality. The goal is to enable their addition to skincare products in larger, more effective quantities, ultimately making high-end skincare more affordable to consumers.
Since its founding, Readline has expanded beyond commonly used ingredients, adding compounds like semaglutide to its portfolio. Many of its ingredients now lead the global market in terms of production volume. Readline supplies over 1,000 well-known companies across industries, including pharmaceuticals, functional skincare, health and nutrition, and even pet and animal health.
Yet, few realize that Readline’s success has been powered by its embrace of digitalization—specifically, DingTalk—and the pivotal role played by a Yale alum.
How a Yale alum helped transform Readline
In 2020, while working as an investor at China Creation Ventures (CCV), Shou Chong crossed paths with Liu Jian, co-founder and CEO of Readline. Their deep discussions about synthetic biology’s future quickly revealed a shared vision for digital transformation.
To Liu, digitalization wasn’t an option but a necessity. Synthetic biology companies, much like traditional manufacturers, must harness digital technologies to significantly improve both quality and efficiency. What’s more, as digital tools become increasingly accessible, the cost of adopting these technologies is falling, creating new opportunities.
“Many beauty companies have struggled with digital transformation, not because they didn’t want to but because of high costs or the disruptive impact it would have on established workflows,” said Shou in an interview with 36Kr.
As their discussions continued, Liu invited Shou to join Readline in 2023 to spearhead the company’s digital strategy.
Shou was uniquely qualified for the role. After earning his PhD at Yale, Shou became one of the first specialists in bioinformatics and machine learning applied to biology. He worked at IBM Watson Health—now known as Merative after IBM sold the company in early 2022—before moving back to CCV, where he led investments in digital healthcare.
“We divide digitalization into two major areas,” Shou said. “First, digital transformation as a traditional enterprise, which is critical for Readline as a synthetic biology company. Second, our partnership with DingTalk, where we use artificial intelligence and low-code solutions to accelerate our digital journey.”
With a strategic blueprint in place, the challenge then became making it a reality.
From strategy to execution
Turning digital strategy into tangible results involves navigating a maze of details. Shou believes that digitalization must be a top-down initiative, but the actual implementation happens from the bottom up. Leadership needs to immerse itself in day-to-day operations to ensure that digital tools truly solve problems for users and customers.
In the case of Readline, the challenge was that synthetic biology involves complex processes. For instance, identifying the right targets, screening ingredients, and validating algorithms traditionally required significant time and effort.
Shou explained that biotechnology combined with IT dramatically accelerates drug discovery, streamlining development and improving success rates. Readline applied this same logic to skincare, creating the R-IMP platform, which uses AI, molecular dynamics, and bioinformatics to speed up the discovery of first-in-class (FIC) ingredients.
However, even after successful lab research, moving from small-scale production to industrial manufacturing presents another set of hurdles, known as the “valley of death.” Scaling up often leads to issues like contamination, stability problems, and difficulties maintaining enzyme activity.
Solving these pain points requires an end-to-end digital approach. And for Readline, digitalization wasn’t just a way to automate processes—it was essential for scaling up production and maintaining efficiency across a diverse team of over 400 employees, from researchers and factory workers to salespeople and regulatory staff.
This digital transformation was also necessary for managing document flow and enabling cross-regional collaboration. With Readline’s headquarters in Shenzhen, production sites in Gansu and Zhuhai, and a global sales network, the company faced a choice: build its own digital infrastructure, or partner with an existing platform. Given its focus on synthetic biology, Readline chose to partner with DingTalk, using its platform to develop two custom AI assistants.
The first was developed to bridge a knowledge gap Shou identified in the market. Many traditional cosmetics brands purchase active ingredients from overseas manufacturers, leaving them with limited understanding of these ingredients’ functionality. Customers often ask how these ingredients work, their ideal dosages, and the scientific backing behind them.
Readline’s sales team, without scientific expertise, often found it challenging to provide detailed answers. That’s where this AI assistant comes in—it can respond quickly to sales inquiries, recommend ingredients, and provide scientific insights. It also gathers market data to help the company make better decisions and engage customers more effectively.
The second AI assistant, launched in July, offers internal support. It serves as a resource hub for employees, providing answers to product-related inquiries and updates on market trends.
Together, these two AI assistants are said to have saved Readline’s sales team over 70% of the time they previously spent searching for product information.
While the assistants initially struggled with accuracy, recent updates and ongoing refinement of the knowledge base have significantly improved their performance.
Readline is also developing AI tools for sales reports, human resources, and business data analysis.
“Looking ahead, we’ll continue expanding AI tools across more roles,” Shou said.
Making everyone a developer
As Readline’s digital transformation deepened, the company realized that digitalization isn’t just for one department—it’s a company-wide effort.
To support this, Readline adopted Yida, a low-code platform that allows non-technical employees to create their own digital tools. This approach has cut development times from months to weeks, empowering teams to respond to business needs faster.
“Low-code platforms are a great complement to traditional software development,” Shou said. “Before, developing a tool could take a team of five to ten people several months. With Yida, a product manager and a developer can do it in one to two weeks.”
Since implementing Yida, Readline has created multiple business applications—from sales approval systems to equipment lifecycle management—developed entirely by non-technical staff.
Shou emphasized that DingTalk is Readline’s digital foundation, and using Yida ensures both efficiency and data security.
As digital transformation sweeps through industries—especially with rapid advances in AI—Readline’s approach offers valuable insights for other companies. For small and medium enterprises, adopting flexible, cost-effective digital systems now appears essential for supporting growth.
“You need to find the right-sized shoes for your feet—big shoes on small feet, or small shoes on big feet, just won’t fit,” Shou said.
KrASIA Connection features translated and adapted content that was originally published by 36Kr. This article was written by Xiao Xi for 36Kr.