The beauty platform Althea announced that they raised Series B funding round worth 8 million USD from FirstFloor Capital, Inwoven Capital, Bridges Alliance Partners, Tekton Ventures, and other investors and banks.
Althea is operating a beauty platform which is available in South East Asia and the United States. They aim to expand markets, launch additional brands, and maximise the data from customers and cosmetic products after funding.
The company was established by Daeup Kang, CEO of Althea, with two other founders–Christopher Cynn, ex-director of Ticketmonster, and Jae Yoon Kim, a Wharton graduate. 160 brands are available on the platform, making it a bridge for Korean brands to go global.
Hyeyoung Park, head of Strategy at Althea, mentioned that many Korean cosmetic brands target Koreans or Chinese people as their customers. Customers from all around the world with different skin tones want localised products that are good quality.
Daeup Kang said that his goal for Althea is to become a world-wide beauty platform. Beyond the international shopping site, they would like to provide digital shopping experiences to their customers.
Althea recently released a self-produced brand called Petal Velvet Powder. It is a product created through feedback from global customers and local influencers and it was sold out after only one month. As their first brand succeeded, they are going to release facial products also. In 2015 and 2016, Bon Angels Venture Partners and 500 Startups invested in Althea also.
This article, entitled “Global digital beauty platform Althea raised 8M USD to expand markets”, was written in Korean by Platum, edited by AllTechAsia.