Y Combinator Backed MEMEBOX Raises $29 Million to Expand Mobile Beauty Platform in the U.S. and Asia

SAN FRANCISCO, March 11, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- MEMEBOX, the fastest growing beauty e-commerce player in the world, today announced that it has raised $29.35 million in funding from Formation 8, Goodwater Capital, AME Cloud Ventures, Pejman Mar Ventures, Y Combinator, Winklevoss Capital, FundersClub, Cowboy Ventures, and Altos Ventures, among others. MEMEBOX will use the funding to significantly expand its mobile and e-commerce offerings to China, the U.S., and Korea.

Launched in 2012 and incubated by Y Combinator, MEMEBOX is a mobile company pioneering the category of "beauty e-commerce" in both Asia and the U.S.  Leveraging the global influence of Korean beauty culture, the company is already the world's largest online Korean beauty store with more than 1,000 brands available on its site and is quickly becoming one of the world's most distinctive beauty platforms. In addition to introducing its own data-driven, private-label cosmetics brand in 2014, MEMEBOX launched new iOS and Android mobile apps for the Korean, Chinese and U.S. markets, reinforcing the company's soaring growth. Since 2012, MEMEBOX has experienced over 400 percent growth, year over year, with nearly one million app downloads.

"From retail distribution to content consumption, the world is shifting towards a mobile-centric lifestyle.  As this shift becomes more prominent, there is an opportunity to capture the $630B (by 2017) global market for beauty and personal care products," said Hyungseok 'Dino' Ha, CEO of MEMEBOX. "Our substantial financial backing will drive our innovation even further, helping MEMEBOX become a leading mobile beauty brand that offers a unique experience for the millions of customers that have an insatiable demand for our service."

"MEMEBOX is at the forefront of their field, responding to the needs of a massive global market and introducing beauty trends to their consumers," said Jerry Yang, Founding Partner of AME Cloud Ventures and Co-founder of Yahoo!. "Their vision and model is inspiring, yet realistic and most importantly, entrenched with data.  I am excited to be a part of their journey and see more from this unique company in the future."

Building on the success of its mobile apps, particularly in Korea where it is generating 80 percent of the company's total sales, MEMEBOX plans to launch more than 10 additional mobile apps in the near future. To bolster these plans, MEMEBOX is significantly expanding its operations in Shanghai and San Francisco where it is actively recruiting developers, designers, and engineers.

"MEMEBOX embraces non-stop transformation, which makes it Asia's—if not the world's—most distinctive beauty platform," said Eric Kim, managing partner at Goodwater Capital. "The powerful combination of its e-commerce and mobile strategies with its own private-label cosmetics offering creates a very advantageous position for MEMEBOX to become a major international e-commerce player."

About MEMEBOX
Founded by CEO Hyungseok 'Dino' Ha and COO Doin Kim in Seoul, South Korea, MEMEBOX graduated as one of Y Combinator's top companies in Winter 2014 with a distinctive beauty platform powered by mobile and unique data science capabilities. With offices in San Francisco, Shanghai and Seoul, MEMEBOX is determined to deliver high quality, trend-leading, beauty experiences for customers all around the world.

For more information, please visit http://www.memebox.com/.

Contact: [email protected]

SOURCE MEMEBOX

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