Far Eastern Corp., the Korean startup behind Seoul Beauty Club, a personalized K-beauty subscription platform targeting the U.S. market, has raised $2 million (2.9 billion KRW) in pre-seed funding. The round was led by Sazze Partners, with participation from Hustle Fund, Collaborative Fund Asia, Mashup Ventures, and The Ventures.

Seoul Beauty Club provides curated K-beauty subscription boxes and personalized product recommendations for American women aged 30 to 60. The platform focuses on premium products with ingredient and efficacy-based formulations, offering customized skincare routines based on users’ skin types, age ranges, and preferred ingredients.

Despite being in beta, Seoul Beauty Club has already achieved millions of dollars in ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue), partnered with over 300 K-beauty brands, and maintained a Net Promoter Score (NPS) above 50, demonstrating strong customer satisfaction and rapid growth.

The company was recently selected for the TIPS (Tech Incubator Program for Startup Korea) Global Track, organized by Korea’s Ministry of SMEs and Startups, recognizing the excellence of its AI-powered beauty personalization technology. Mashup Ventures recommended Seoul Beauty Club for the program, which will provide up to 1.2 billion KRW ($815,000 USD) in R&D funding. With this support, Seoul Beauty Club plans to strengthen its local logistics and operational infrastructure, aiming to scale revenue by 10x and reach monthly break-even in 2026.

The company’s growth is supported by surging demand for K-beauty in the United States. In 2024, U.S. imports of Korean cosmetics reached approximately $1.7 billion, up 54.3% year-over-year, making Korea the top cosmetics exporter to the U.S., surpassing France. However, while women aged 30 to 60 account for more than half of total skincare spending, distribution channels specifically serving this demographic remain limited.

Donghee Park, co-founder and CEO of Far Eastern Corp., previously worked as an attorney at Kim & Chang, advising on cross-border transactions between Korea and the U.S. She later ventured into global entrepreneurship as a co-founder of a U.S. beautytech startup, leading product development. She then founded the company with Allan Grinshtein, who has experience in product development at Apple, Meta, and Netflix, to solve structural challenges Korean beauty brands face when entering the American market.

Eunu Park, Partner at Mashup Ventures, commented, “Despite global interest in K-beauty, consumers still struggle with product selection, and brands face barriers to overseas expansion. Seoul Beauty Club addresses both issues simultaneously with a deep understanding of the U.S. market and consumer needs, positioning itself to expand into a personalized beauty commerce platform.”

Donghee Park added, “Seoul Beauty Club is solving customer pain points in a beauty market cluttered with exaggerated marketing by offering efficacy-driven curation. Our strength lies in combining rapid growth with lean operations that minimize unnecessary costs while maintaining stability. With this investment, we’ll expand our U.S. logistics and engineering capabilities to revolutionize how American consumers experience K-beauty and establish ourselves as a global beauty infrastructure.”