Beauty device company APR earns unicorn status with 1 trillion won valuation
Actress Kim Hee-sun, a global ambassador for AGE-R, poses with the beauty device. Courtesy of APR
By Kim Jae-heun
Global beauty tech firm APR has become a unicorn company after receiving a 1 billion won ($781,983) investment from CJ OnStyle, thereby putting its corporate value over 1 trillion won, the company said Thursday.
APR CEO Kim Byung-hoon
Unicorn companies are those that reach a valuation of 1 trillion won without being listed on the stock market.
The company disclosed its pre-initial public offering (IPO) investment from CJ Group's home-shopping affiliate on June 14 through DART, the Financial Supervisory Service's electronic disclosure board.
This is the second pre-IPO investment APR has received this year, following the previous one in March, the company said
“Following the company's corporate value that was evaluated in March at 700 billion won pre-IPO, it improved to 1 trillion won this time, because many people recognized our potential for growth. We will continue to focus on developing more products and strengthening our production capabilities to occupy the future beauty device market and achieve higher corporate value,” an APR official said.
The achievement is attributed to APR's prominent sales performance regarding its beauty device brand AGE-R and its continuous launch of new products.
APR sold over 1 million of the beauty devices as of May, a little over two years since its initial launch in March 2021. The company also introduced new devices such as Boost Healer last July, and Eye Shot in March this year and Body Shot last month.
CJ OnStyle saw the potential for synergy with APR, when investing in the beauty device maker.
The home-shopping firm owns various retail channels such as an online mall, a mobile commerce platform and a YouTube channel. It plans to utilize its strong retail network to sell AGE-R beauty devices.
Meanwhile, APR is preparing to go public with the aim of submitting a preliminary review late in the third quarter or early in the fourth quarter. It already selected Shinhan Securities last November as an underwriter for the IPO.