KOROUND Secures Multi-Hundred-Million-Won Investment After Breaking into the Halal Beauty Market

KOROUND, a Beauty-Tech startup that has targeted the global halal beauty market since its inception, has successfully secured a follow-on investment worth hundreds of millions of Korean won just two years after launching its brand.

According to the venture investment industry on October 5, KOROUND recently secured approximately KRW 200 million in follow-on seed funding from the iAccel alliance, the investment arm of Infobank. The investment was jointly participated in by Infobank Bio Personal Investment Partnership No. 1 and TBiz–Infobank Personal Investment Partnership No. 1. Following its initial seed investment from an accelerator (AC), KOROUND has successfully attracted additional capital from specialized investment funds focused on the bio and healthcare sectors, demonstrating its growth potential within a relatively short period of time.

KOROUND has also made steady progress in securing government-backed funding linked to its initial seed investment. The company received a total of KRW 30 million in seed investment from OpenNol through two separate rounds. Building on this initial funding, KOROUND was subsequently selected for the LIPS (Linkage Investment to Private Sector) program, a government-backed matching loan program for innovative small businesses, as well as the Pre-TIPS program operated by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups. Through these programs, the company has secured stable funding to support its early-stage business expansion.

From the early stages of its establishment, KOROUND set the global market—not the domestic market—as its primary target. Its skincare brand DECORE, launched in July last year, has positioned vegan and halal global-standard certifications as key competitive advantages. Based on this strategy, the company has focused on expanding into Southeast Asian markets with large Muslim populations, particularly Indonesia and Malaysia.