K-beauty startup Althea raises seed funding from 500 Startups

In the last few years, demand for Korean entertainment and beauty products has grown so much that we keep hearing the term “Korean wave.” One startup riding that wave, Althea, is taking aim at the Southeast Asian market.

The ecommerce store today announced it raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from Silicon Valley venture capital firm 500 Startups.

Althea will expand beyond its home market Korea into six countries – Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines, co-founder Frank Kang tells Tech in Asia. Frank is an ecommerce veteran, having served as COO of Livingsocial Malaysia.

“Korea has been a bellwether for the beauty industry in SEA after the Hong Kong and Japan wave for decades,” says 500 Startups managing director Khailee Ng of their investment. “Things happen in Korea first, and it’s faster and better quality than in other places.”

“500 Startups is a perfect partner for us to establish a strong brand in SEA,” notes Frank.

In style

We asked Frank about the details of the financing round – how much it was and for how much equity, and whether they’ve received the amount in full – but he declined to disclose.

Frank had the “a-ha” moment when friends would repeatedly ask him to buy certain Korean cosmetics for them every time he visited Korea.

With this growing demand in mind, he launched K-beauty focused Althea in July along with two other co-founders – Christopher Cynn, who’s also behind South Korean ecommerce site Ticketmonster, and Jae Kim, a former finance professional who worked for top investment firms in the US.

Frank says Althea carries over 1,000 products. There’s no word on how many active customers or how much revenue the estore has booked so far.