K-Beauty gurus’ favorite Memebox raises $65.9 million to expand online retail

If you’ve ever binge-watched YouTube makeup tutorials, then you probably know South Korean beauty brand and distributer Memebox thanks to its peeling masks.

K-Beauty favorite Memebox — think Sephora for South Korean products — announced today that it scored a $66 million investment led by Formation Group. With this series C capital, Memebox plans to venture into new markets and “link its digital platform to additional offline retail experiences.”

“[Memebox] represents the future of the digitally powered consumer brand revolution …  and benefit[s] from the ability to use data and technology that offline incumbents cannot,” said Formation Group founder and CEO Brian Koo.

“The result is that women all over the world have fallen for and continue to fall in love with products from Memebox,” Koo explained — and he is not exaggerating. The company says its sales have grown by 1,200 percent year over year in China, while sales in the U.S. grew 490 percent year over year.

The latest investment brings Memebox close to a whopping $100 million in funds, having been backed by Goodwater Capital and Pejman Mar Ventures in multiple rounds.