TheVentures Makes Seed Investment in "Cleversteps" by 2.65 Million-Subscriber K-Beauty YouTuber Jason Coreano

The global early-stage venture capital (VC) firm TheVentures announced on April 16 that it has completed a seed round investment in the Derma K-beauty brand "Cleversteps," founded by Jason Bae, a leading K-content influencer representing Latin America.

원본보기 아이콘

CEO Bae is an influencer active in Latin America under the name "Jason Coreano." He has 2.65 million followers on YouTube, 1.63 million on Instagram, and 1.8 million on TikTok. He has collaborated with major domestic and international brands such as Hyundai Motor and Rakuten Viki, and his Latin American creator collaboration pool, including his follower network, totals 250 million people. Over the past 90 days, his social networking service (SNS) content has achieved approximately 127 million views without advertising expenses, which would amount to about 1 million dollars (approximately 1.3 billion won) if converted to paid advertising.

The investment will be used for initial product production. Cleversteps plans to launch three core products in August, targeting the U.S. Hispanic and Mexican markets as an entry point for its full-scale expansion into the Latin American market. The Latin American beauty market is estimated at 67 billion dollars (about 100 trillion won), but the penetration rate of K-beauty is only 0.13%. The products to be released-Rice-Vita Complex, Hydra Gentle Cleanser, Niacin Glow Essence, and B5 Extra Repair Cream-were developed in collaboration with the global manufacturer Kolmar Korea.

Kim Chulwoo, CEO of TheVentures, said, "Cleversteps possesses a deep understanding of the Latin American market and an extensive creator network, with the brand already internalizing powerful marketing assets."

© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.