Kylie Jenner helped this gadget go viral. Now the firm's founder is a billionaire
Behind the firm is 36-year-old Kim Byung Hoon, a tech entrepreneur-turned-beauty mogul whose company has made him South Korea's newest billionaire. His 31 per cent stake in APR is now worth about $US1.3 billion ($2 billion), according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, after the firm's shares soared 200 per cent this year.
Kim started out dabbling in mobile apps – including a dating app – after studying in California as an exchange student more than a decade ago. It was there that he first witnessed the smartphone revolution and got hooked on entrepreneurship.
His pivot to skincare came in 2014 when he launched APR, initially focused on cosmetics. In 2021, the business expanded into producing high-tech facial devices that promise spa-like treatments at home. It's a product line that Kim personally espouses – he uses APR's facial gadget for 30 minutes every day, APR's chief financial officer, Shin Jae Ha, told Bloomberg News.
After going public last year, APR is now the second-largest publicly traded beauty firm in South Korea, with a market capitalisation of more than $US4 billion.
Endorsements from top-tier influencers reflect the growing mainstream appeal of K-beauty, the umbrella term for South Korea's booming beauty exports. Once the domain of Gen Z or Asian-American influencers, they have gone mainstream in the United States, where sales of Korean beauty products jumped 56 per cent to $US1.9 billion last year.
With global interest rising alongside K-pop music and Korean dramas, celebrities began spotlighting products from APR's flagship brand, Medicube, in their routines. Hailey Bieber first posted about its gel mask in late 2023, unprompted, the company said. That organic buzz paved the way for APR's global campaigns in 2024 featuring Kylie and Kendall Jenner, and Khloe Kardashian.
'Now it feels that K-beauty has reached the stage where it's spreading from early adopters to mass-market consumers,' said APR's CFO Shin, a former M&A banker at HSBC Holdings, who joined Kim in 2016 after being drawn to his vision.
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