‘startUp inDia’ attracts korean BeaUty care start-Up
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s two favourite missions, Startup India and Make In India, have started attracting many foreign start-ups. A 32-year-old South Korean entrepreneur, Dale Han (Deugcheon Han - Korean name) is busy these days to set up distribution channels in major Indian cities with a unique effective skincare regimen from his motherland. He runs his beauty business in Seoul too.
A former data analyst at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Dale is applying his analytical skills to provide optimal solution for the Indian skin. We met him in a Health Ministry unit where he had come to get his products certified.
Dale developed love for India when he first came to Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, for an exchange programme during his Masters degree in 2010. “The experience was fascinating. After discovering the ‘real India’, I decided to make it my second home,” Dale told The Sunday Guardian.
“I am grateful to Indian government’s programmes which are giving young foreigners like me an opportunity to do business here,” says Dale, who is currently manufacturing his products in industryleading Korean cosmetic labs and is also working with local partners to bring Ayurvedic treatment to his mother country while transferring expertise to India. His firm Limese is a B2B and B2C startup, which aims to bring cutting-edge skincare solution to e-commerce, retail stores, salons, spas and clinics. Dale helps Indian brands source their white label products from Korea too by handing multiple factories according to client’s specific requirements.Dale’s Indian experience has encouraged many other young Korean entrepreneurs dealing in different products. “I have become their guide now,” says Dale, son of a Seoul businessman, laughing.
Indians may not have heard of “K-beauty” yet, however, it has attracted a lot of interest from international investors. Global brands such as Lancôme, Maybelline or Shiseido use Korea as manufacturing base for their products. Recently, Unilever acquired a Korean local brand at $2.7 billion. The LVMH, a leading French luxury company, invested $50 million on a Korean skin-care brand in 2016, while Estée Lauder put an undisclosed amount on a local skincare product.
“The environmental factors in India such as high temperature, strong sunlight, and air pollution provide ground for the extra care which one can hardly treat with only homemade recipe or traditional herbal treatment. By combining modern science and nature extracts, K-beauty solution can deal with skin damage caused by the harsh environmental factors, like pollution in Delhi,” Limese’s founderchairman points out. Beginning 2018, Dale will launch a face mask while preparing to bring more Korean portfolio in the market.