Althea raises $3.5m series A to sell K-beauty products to more markets

Photo credit: Sodanie Chea.

Korean beauty ecommerce site Althea plans to continue its Southeast Asia march and foray into Thailand and Vietnam by the end of this year. Helping the company do this is a US$3.5 million series A funding it just closed from Mirae Asset Ventures, Posco Ventures, Tekton Ventures, and Cherubic Ventures. Existing investor 500 Startups also participated in this new financing round.

The Korean beauty market is projected to grow to US$8 billion in five years.

Althea began its expansion out of home market Korea late last year, launching in Malaysia first. Since then, the startup has built a presence in three other markets – Indonesia, Singapore, and the Philippines.

The store was co-founded by Frank Kang, an ecommerce veteran who previously served as COO of Livingsocial (Malaysia), in July 2015.

Frank had the “a-ha” moment that was the genesis of his startup when friends would repeatedly ask him to buy certain Korean cosmetics every time he visited Korea. At the time, the so-called Korean wave – or the overwhelming interest in South Korean pop culture, from entertainment to fashion and merchandise – was already taking the world by storm.

Althea now counts over 500,000 monthly active users and a revenue run rate of over US$10 million. Frank tells Tech in Asia the company has grown its revenue by an average of 30 percent each month. “2016 will largely be focused on solidifying [our] leadership in the K-beauty segment in Southeast Asia and hitting profitability by the end of the year,” he says.

“Southeast Asia is already the second-largest destination for Korean beauty products and is expected to grow to an US$8 billion market in the next five years,” he continues.

Althea carries around 2,000 products on its site, including popular brands such as Laneige, Innisfree, and Etude House. It’s also added a fair amount of products from new and emerging brands.

Frank and the team will spend the newly raised funds for marketing, merchandising, and logistics.