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SEOUL, South Korea — HARUNA, the Korean wellness beauty brand developed by Seoul-based SOFIT, has secured a strategic investment from NURIHAUS, marking a significant step in the brand’s plans for international expansion.
The partnership goes beyond financial backing. HARUNA plans to combine SOFIT’s experience in consumer insights, brand building and influencer marketing with NURIHAUS’ global creator network and distribution infrastructure, with North America among the brand’s priority markets.
NURIHAUS has been expanding its role in the K-beauty ecosystem through an investment model that combines capital with hands-on support in marketing and global distribution. In 2026, the company formed the Helios Nuri Gongbang Venture Investment Fund I, a KRW 6.2 billion fund dedicated to K-beauty.
Through its broader infrastructure, NURIHAUS connects portfolio companies with a network of approximately 500,000 creators, AI-powered creator matching and campaign capabilities, along with support for expansion into international retail channels.
For HARUNA, the investment comes at a pivotal moment. The brand is moving beyond its initial body-care launch into facial skincare while preparing for a broader push into global markets.
Founded in 2022, SOFIT began as a commerce platform focused on women’s wellness, giving the company an early window into how consumers discover, evaluate and experience products in their everyday lives.
As the platform grew, so did the volume of consumer feedback and behavioral data behind it. SOFIT later expanded into influencer marketing and brand growth, using consumer reviews and social data to better understand not only what people buy, but what they expect from the products they choose.
Today, the company works across content strategy and production, influencer marketing, performance marketing and commerce, with a particular focus on wellness.
Over the years, SOFIT accumulated more than 30,000 consumer reviews, revealing recurring concerns around dryness and dehydration, uneven texture, loss of elasticity and sensitivity.
The feedback also surfaced more nuanced frustrations with existing skincare — from ingredients and textures to how products feel on the skin and how naturally they fit into an everyday routine.
Rather than treating those insights as market research alone, SOFIT began translating them directly into product development.
The result was HARUNA.
Built around the message “A Day for Me,” HARUNA is a wellness beauty brand shaped by real consumer concerns. Its products are developed by considering not only ingredients and efficacy, but also formulation, texture and the overall experience of using skincare every day.
After launching with body care, HARUNA is now expanding into facial skincare, applying the same consumer-led approach to a broader range of everyday skin concerns.
Finding Its Place at the Intersection of Beauty and Wellness
Since its debut in 2026, HARUNA has begun building visibility through organic exposure from Korean artists and creators.
Super Junior’s Choi Siwon and Wonder Girls’ Yubin were among the public figures who shared HARUNA products on social media following the brand’s launch.
HARUNA has also looked beyond conventional beauty marketing to establish a broader presence in wellness and lifestyle culture.
In the first half of 2026, the brand participated as a collaborating wellness partner in a Morning Rave event involving Korean food company Ottogi and Girls’ Generation’s Hyoyeon, bringing together elements of music, movement, food and beauty.
For HARUNA, these moments are not simply about celebrity endorsements. They reflect a broader view of wellness — one in which skincare increasingly sits alongside food, movement, music and the everyday rituals that shape how people live and feel.
That philosophy is now being carried into the brand’s next generation of products.
A First-of-Its-Kind Skincare Format, in Korea and Globally
HARUNA is preparing to introduce ABC Smoothie, a facial skincare line inspired by apple, beet and carrot.
The concept draws from the familiar ABC juice combination but translates it into skincare through HARUNA’s broader philosophy of blending thoughtfully selected ingredients, distinctive textures and sensorial experiences into an everyday beauty ritual.
At the center of the collection is the HARUNA ABC Smoothie Deep Fresh Pack Cleanser, featuring what SOFIT describes as a first-of-its-kind formulation in both Korea and the global skincare market.
Rather than simply combining the benefits of a wash-off mask and a cleanser in one product, the formulation is designed to transform the user experience within a single skincare step.
Applied to dry skin, it initially behaves like a facial pack, creating a close-fitting layer across the skin. Once water is added and the formula is massaged, it transitions into a cleanser, allowing the user to move seamlessly from pack to cleanse in a single formulation.
According to SOFIT, no skincare product using the same formulation format has previously been introduced in either the Korean or global market.
The concept reflects a broader principle behind HARUNA’s approach to product development: innovation does not necessarily have to add another step to a skincare routine. It can also come from rethinking the steps consumers already use every day.
The ABC Smoothie line will also include the ABC Smoothie Glow Cream & Serum, with additional products planned as the brand develops its broader “Skin Smoothie” concept.
For HARUNA, “smoothie” is more than a visual identity. It represents the idea of bringing carefully selected ingredients together in formulas designed to feel fresh, sensorial and easy to incorporate into everyday life — a brighter, more energetic interpretation of wellness skincare.
From Building Brands to Building One of Its Own The investment also represents a broader transition for SOFIT.
For years, the company has worked behind the scenes, helping brands grow through consumer insights, content, creators, performance marketing and commerce.
HARUNA is where those capabilities come together under a brand of its own.
“We have spent years listening closely to consumers and observing what actually makes a brand grow,” said Sohyun Park, founder and CEO of SOFIT. “What we learned is that a strong product is only the beginning. Product, content, data, distribution and community all have to move together.”
For Park, the partnership with NURIHAUS creates an opportunity to apply that philosophy on a larger stage.
“HARUNA is where we are putting everything we have learned into practice,” she said. “With NURIHAUS, we can connect the capabilities we have built in Korea with creators, distribution partners and consumers in other markets.”
The ambition, Park said, is not simply to export another Korean skincare label after establishing itself at home.
“We want HARUNA to be built with a global consumer in mind from the beginning,” she said. “Our goal is to create a wellness beauty brand that starts with real consumer concerns, translates them into distinctive products and becomes part of people’s everyday routines, wherever they are.”
With NURIHAUS joining as a strategic investor, HARUNA plans to expand its skincare portfolio while accelerating partnerships with global creators and exploring international distribution opportunities, beginning with North America.
For SOFIT, HARUNA represents the culmination of years spent studying what consumers want, how brands grow and where the two intersect. For HARUNA, it is only the beginning.
이진호 기자 jinho2323@hankyung.com
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