How Medicube’s founder pivoted from lacklustre apps to a skincare empire

LOS ANGELES – Kim Byung-hoon has just capped a long day of meetings in Los Angeles, the final leg of a whirlwind trip through California, and he would like a drink.

The 37-year-old founder and chief executive of APR Corp, the South Korean beauty behemoth, sidles up to a bar at San Vicente Bungalows, a private members’ club that looks less like your typical whisky den and more like it has been air-dropped in from South Florida, all pink stripes and palm fronds.

He orders a Johnnie Walker Blue, neat.

“My whisky habit started as a way to get away from work and wind down,” he says. “I don’t like to drink for too long, so whatever kind of gives a strong punch and gets the job done is what I prefer.”

It is not the hobby one might expect from someone in the beauty industry; after all, most experts agree that drinking alcohol is diametrically opposed to attaining a dewy glow.

But Kim has plans to temper the tipple by hitting the gym after his whisky fix, before heading to dinner. Most days, he clocks 5km to 7km on the treadmill, even on a work trip like this one, while watching YouTube clips of battle royale-style video games to keep his attention.

He gestures at the whisky. “The trend in (South) Korea right now is to ask your friends how young you look, and of course, everyone wants to look younger than their age,” he says. “That’s why I’m strict about my routine. But I still want to have a good time.” 

It is hard not to have a good time when your company is on such a tear.

In the years since Kim founded the business in 2014, it has gone public on the Korea Exchange, boosted its market cap to roughly US$10 billion (S$12.9 billion) and turned itself into the world’s third-largest pure-play beauty company, behind only L’Oreal and Estee Lauder. Today, Kim is worth US$3.1 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Setting skincare trends

APR, which stands for Advance People’s Real Life, makes dozens of creams, serums and masks designed to help consumers achieve their finest possible facade. It put salmon DNA into serum even before the (revoltingly named) salmon sperm facials showed up at your local med spa.

But its best-known product is probably its handheld Medicube device that uses light-emitting diodes and electric currents to emulate procedures normally inaccessible outside a dermatologist’s office (think: refining pores and firming up facial contours).

Given the boon it has been to Kim’s business, you could call it his magic wand.

APR introduced its Medicube cosmetics line in 2016 and its at-home device in 2021. Paid partnerships with TikTok trendsetters like Kim Kardashian, Kylie Jenner and Hailey Bieber helped spread the word.

“A lot of these celebrities, they have such a mass following that it just made sense to utilise them to increase awareness for our brand and product, but it’s not just them we’re paying attention to on social media,” Kim says.

“We monitor what customers say, what videos they post, their personal reviews and stories. Social media is our feedback loop.”

It is also a prime point of sale. In June, Medicube US made more than US$22 million in revenue on TikTok Shop, more than any other brand on the platform for a fourth straight month. To date, more than six million Medicube wands have been sold worldwide.  

The latest model – the Booster Pro X2 (US$299), a name perhaps more appropriate for a rocket than for a device that sits on your bathroom sink – began selling in the US in June and boasts seven “modes” that put your face through its paces. “It takes care of everything, starting from the inside out,” says Kim.

“To snatch the jowls,” he gestures to his jaw, taut enough that you could bounce a dime off it, “we need to start with the muscles. That’s where ‘Derma Shot’ mode comes in.” It uses electric currents, a tad more aggressive than the buzz of an electric razor, to massage and sculpt facial contours.

“Air Shot” mode preps skin to better absorb products, he says, while “Dual” mode allows you to tone and prep simultaneously so you can cut down the amount of time you need to spend with the device (its user guide recommends one to five minutes per mode as many as three times a day).

“We know not everyone wants a long skincare routine,” adds Kim. But in his mind, Medicube is kind of like a Planet Fitness for the face. “Take two people in their 30s,” he says. “If one person is working out and the other is not, you’re definitely going to have noticeable, visual differences.” (Despite the wand’s success, the company still gets more than 75 per cent of revenue from its cosmetics and beauty brands, which include Aprilskin and Forment.) 

Foreign frontier

The forefront of the beauty industry is a curious place to be for a man who claims his skincare regimen when he was growing up involved nothing more complicated than a bar of soap.

In college, he envisioned a career in technology. He went to California as an exchange student at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he tried his hand at creating a dating app. “It didn’t work out,” he says, “but I liked the vibe in Santa Barbara.” If he ever returned to Southern California, he thought to himself, “I hope it’s as a successful businessman”.

Back in South Korea, he halted his studies at Yonsei University to dabble in e-commerce apps. They failed to launch, and he did not complete his degree. He got a job with a beauty brand peddling products that “were not addressing consumer needs”, and realised that melding start-up methodologies with “actually great skincare” could be a winning proposition. 

Along the way, the company went public, with its shares jumping 27 per cent in their February 2024 debut. “We wanted to reward the early members of our team, and the IPO was a really good way of making that happen,” Kim says, referring to the initial public offering. The shares are up more than 60 per cent in 2026.

In the summer of 2025, Medicube landed in Ulta Beauty stores across the US, and in June, it rolled out at thousands of US Walmart stores. It is planning to continue to grow in the US and also prioritise more of what the company calls “high-growth markets”, including in Europe, India and the Middle East. About 89 per cent of APR’s sales are from overseas.

APR may be ahead, but its peers are catching up. The overall beauty market is expected to grow 5 per cent a year till end-2030, a McKinsey & Co report shows, and devices will play a bigger role. The global home-use beauty devices market was roughly US$11.6 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach US$19.7 billion by 2029, according to Business Research, a consulting firm.

Meanwhile, more people than ever are willing to go under the knife – or syringe – for the promise of looking more youthful. The American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery projects that the number of facial procedures will rise 19 per cent in the US in 2026 to an estimated 1.6 million, and 80 per cent of those will be non-invasive treatments like Botox and fillers. Is Kim wary of the competition?

“Not at all,” he says. “Growing interest is always good.”

As for Botox and fillers, he says: “Think of it like going to the dentist – you get your teeth scaled once a year, but you brush your teeth every morning and night. That’s what Medicube is: a tool you use every day for maintenance.”

In his view, artificial intelligence will only make it more appealing. (The newest wand has an AI mode that syncs with a smartphone app.) “With AI, we can see which modes you’re using and for how long, and offer more personalised options,” he says.

“Also, with AI, people will ultimately have more free time for themselves, right? Maybe they’ll want to focus more on their health.”

Speaking of health, Kim has reached the bottom of his glass. During the past week of California travels, which began with a conference in Napa Valley, “we went through a bottle of whisky every night”, he says, nodding at the three colleagues who have accompanied him on the journey from APR’s Seoul headquarters.

Kim considers the other whiskies on offer – WhistlePig, Macallan, Redbreast. “Actually, maybe just some water,” he tells the bartender. “When I get back to the hotel, I’m going to go for a run.” BLOOMBERG