December 22, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] Memebox announced on Sept. 14 that it has launched a new K-beauty brand Kaja with US-based multi-brand cosmetics store operator Sephora.

LVMH-owned Sephora, which has over 2,300 online and offline outlets in 33 countries, and Memebox signed a partnership deal in August and the new brand is their first collaboration together. 

The products will be sold through Sephora’s official website from Sept. 18 and will also be available in some of the US firm’s outlets from Sept. 28.

The new brand first introduced 47 budget products, which are priced between 10,000 won (US$8.90) to 30,000 won. The company said that its products considered different skin types of people with diverse ethnicities. They plan to introduce new product lines every other month.

“We plan to localize our brand to US customers, in order to surpass the limits of existing Korean cosmetics brands,” Ha Hyeong-suk, Memebox CEO said in a statement.

Memebox is well known for successfully securing funds from Silicon Valley-based startup accelerator Y Combinator in 2013. It has so far received funds worth around 114.6 billion won from foreign and domestic investors.

Meanwhile, Sephora is also finalizing plans to expand into the Korean market. The US company started hiring local employees here in July to launch its first outlet in Korea next year.

By Song Seung-hyun (ssh@heraldcorp.com)