'K-Beauty' Sixpence Secures 2 Billion Won in Seed Funding with Participation from Kakao Ventures and Amorepacific

Kakao Ventures Leads Investment

Amorepacific Participates as Strategic Investor

K-beauty startup Sixpence announced on August 6 that it has secured 2 billion won in seed funding. Kakao Ventures led the investment round, with Amorepacific and K2 Investment joining as co-investors.

Sixpence is a skincare brand built from its inception with the overseas market in mind. Instead of the typical seeding method of providing free products to generate content exposure, the company verifies consumer response through social selling and affiliate marketing strategies that connect directly to sales-based compensation. This approach enables Sixpence to track sales data such as purchase conversion rates and repurchase rates, allowing the company to pursue product-market fit (PMF) based on concrete numbers. The brand is expanding its product lineup around its flagship line, Melt Halo.

Jinseok Hong, CEO of Sixpence, began his career at LG Household & Health Care, later serving as head of marketing and domestic e-commerce at Mediheal. He also held the positions of Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) and B2C channel lead at Round Lab, where he was in charge of business between global companies and customers. In addition to Hong’s long-standing core team members, the company recently brought in a marketer from Larasweet and a manager from Qoo10.

With these talents, Sixpence has targeted the global market from the startup phase by operating overseas channels and marketing abroad, rather than verifying the brand domestically first and then expanding overseas.

Sixpence plans to utilize this investment to further enhance its brand and accelerate global marketing by leveraging its social selling and affiliate channels. As a strategic investor (SI), Amorepacific will partner with Sixpence in open innovation projects on a phased basis.

Hye-won An, senior investment manager at Kakao Ventures, stated, “It is rare to find a team that has hands-on experience in both large beauty companies and indie brands, as well as in planning and developing global channels. We highly regard Sixpence’s approach of rapidly verifying and refining products through influencer channels and the team’s capability to execute this strategy.”

CEO Jinseok Hong commented, “Our exceptionally agile team, which bridges product planning, marketing, B2B sales, and channel sales, will continue to create brands validated by the market, following Sixpence’s unique approach. Just as our company was named after the novel ‘The Moon and Sixpence,’ which contrasts ideals with reality, we aim to become a global brand that achieves both creativity and profitability.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.