Kim Hee-sun and Yoo Jae-suk Advertise... Company Valued at 700 Billion Won Hits Jackpot

APR Raises 8 Billion KRW in Pre-IPO Funding

Global beauty tech company APR (CEO Kim Byung-hoon) announced on the 14th that it has been valued at 700 billion KRW and has attracted 8 billion KRW worth of pre-IPO equity investment.

This investment round included participants such as NH-Soo In Investment Innovation Growth M&A Investment Association, SJ Partners, which has continued investing in innovative companies, and IBK Industrial Bank of Korea.

[Photo by APR]

APR is a global beauty tech company that owns multiple brands including Mediheal, AGE-R, Forment, Aprilskin, NERDY, and GlamD Bio. Among these brands, the home beauty care device 'AGE-R,' launched in 2021, has been drawing particular attention for its growth. Especially, Mediheal has built recognition by employing advertising models such as Yoo Jae-suk and Kim Hee-sun.

The street fashion brand NERDY also began gaining popularity among the MZ generation starting in 2017 with the 'IU training suit.' The company explained that the skin beauty device brand AGE-R has sold over 700,000 units cumulatively within two years since 2021.

APR’s beauty devices, consisting of Derma EMS, U-Cellar Deep Shot, ATS Air Shot, and Booster Healer, have achieved significant results, surpassing 700,000 units sold and 150 billion KRW in sales within approximately two years since their launch as of February.

APR is recognized for its strengths in marketing strategy and distribution channels. From its early days, the company actively engaged in marketing through social media. Additionally, by distributing products directly to consumers through its own shopping mall with 4 million members, it enhanced price competitiveness.

The success in attracting investment is attributed to the positive outlook that APR will achieve greater results on the global stage. Currently, APR sells about 200,000 beauty devices annually in markets including the United States, Japan, China, Hong Kong, and Singapore. It is expected that once sales channels in South America and Europe are developed, the annual expected sales volume in the global market will increase significantly.

APR plans to actively invest in and strengthen its capabilities in the beauty device business using the pre-IPO funds raised this time. In particular, it aims to internalize a ‘vertical process’ structure covering the entire process from beauty device planning and development to manufacturing and distribution, thereby establishing a more stable and innovative product supply system.

Meanwhile, APR is preparing for its listing with the goal of submitting a preliminary review in the third quarter, and selected Shinhan Investment Corp. as the lead underwriter for its IPO last November.