In 2024, Reshbha Munjal, a Mars and Airtel veteran, and Jenovia Daun Jung, a Korean skincare expert with 15+ years of experience, co-founded KorinMi in Gurugram. India's first professional Korean skin clinic turned operationally profitable within six months, raised ₹3 crore in pre-seed funding, and appeared on Shark Tank India Season 5 to introduce a category India had never seen on the show before.
For years, Indian skincare meant choosing between ancient ayurvedic rituals and global cosmetic giants that designed products for skin tones and climates far removed from ours.
Then Korea changed how the world understood skin. And two women, one Indian and one Korean, decided it was time to bring that science to India. Properly. Clinically. Authentically.
Founded in 2024 by Reshbha Munjal and Jenovia Daun Jung, KorinMi blends Korean skincare expertise, technology, and products with treatments customised specifically for Indian skin. The brand name says everything. "Korin" stands for Korea plus India, and "Mi" means beauty in Korean. A mission encoded in the name itself.
The Origin - A Gap Hidden Behind a Global Trend
- Reshbha Munjal was born in Delhi, raised partly in Malaysia, and built her career across leading multinationals including Airtel and Mars, gaining deep expertise in brand building, consumer markets, and strategic growth. She saw K-beauty becoming a global phenomenon and noticed something the Indian market was missing entirely.
- "While K-beauty has a strong following in India, there was a notable absence of professional Korean skin clinics offering science-backed, dermatologist-approved treatments tailored to Indian skin," Reshbha explains. She partnered with Jenovia Daun Jung, a Korean skincare expert with over 15 years of experience working in Korea's professional beauty ecosystem, to build exactly what was missing.
- Joining the founding team is Dr. Deepali Bhardwaj, a renowned celebrity dermatologist with over 15 years of experience, who serves as KorinMi's partner dermatologist, strengthening the clinic's mission to deliver world-class, tailored treatments for Indian skin.
The Strategic Genius - Diagnosis First, Always
- The boldest decision KorinMi made was to build around clinics and personalisation, in a market where most beauty startups chase D2C products for easier, faster scale.
- KorinMi is equipped with 3D skin analysis technology, a first in India, enabling certified experts to evaluate skin conditions at both the epidermis and dermis levels. Every treatment begins with understanding the skin, rather than selling a product to it.
- Among KorinMi's standout offerings is the Diamond Glass Skin Treatment, an exclusive multi-acid treatment that brightens and refines skin texture. Xylift delivers non-invasive facial contouring by stimulating collagen and improving elasticity. Luminex, a painless Korean YAG laser treatment, precisely targets hyperpigmentation and acne scars and is safe for Indian skin tones.
- The clinical results spoke for themselves. Within just six months of launching its flagship clinic at Worldmark Sector-65, Gurugram, KorinMi became operationally profitable and expanded to a second location in Delhi-NCR.
- "What stood out was not just the strength of the concept, but the founders' vision and execution. KorinMi has already achieved profitability within six months, testament to the founders' operational excellence," said investor Vikas Agarwal, former CEO of Kaya Skin Clinic, UAE.
The Shark Tank Moment and Funding
- KorinMi raised ₹3 crore in a pre-seed funding round led by prominent angel investors and CXOs, including Vikas Agarwal and Vivek Kumar, CEO of Venture Garage. Armed with capital, clinical proof, and two profitable locations, the founders walked onto Shark Tank India Season 5 Episode 49, marking one of the first appearances of a Korean skincare expert on the show.
- The founders highlighted the growing popularity of K-beauty in India and explained how their formulations are tailored to suit Indian skin types and climate conditions. Despite strong audience interest, the Sharks declined to invest, citing concerns about differentiation in the crowded beauty market.
- The Tank said no. The market had already said yes. And the surge in website and social media traction following the episode proved that the national audience was paying close attention.
Scale and The Road Ahead
- KorinMi plans to scale to 25 clinics across major metros including Mumbai, Chennai, and Hyderabad over the next three years. Alongside clinical expansion, the brand is entering the D2C segment with a curated line of professional-grade Korean homecare skincare products, with five products already in its portfolio.
- The vision is clear. Not just to be a clinic chain, but to define an entirely new category in Indian skincare: professional K-beauty, rooted in clinical science, personalised to Indian skin, and built for long-term results.
The Business Lesson — Build the Category. Own It.
- KorinMi's sharpest lesson is this: the founders who define a category own it far longer than the ones who simply compete within one.
- Reshbha and Jenovia arrived at a moment when K-beauty had enormous cultural awareness in India but zero professional clinical infrastructure. There were products. There were tutorials. But there was no professional, diagnosis-first Korean skin clinic built for Indian skin. KorinMi built that. And in doing so, every future competitor in this space will be measured against the standard they have already set.
- "We are offering a whole new category of professional skincare, precision-driven, results-oriented, and grounded in Korean dermatological science," said Jenovia Daun Jung. The Sharks may have passed. The category, however, is wide open and KorinMi is already inside it.
Sources: Snapdeal Blog, Sugermint / PR Newswire, Indian Startup Times, Indian Startup News, Entrepreneur India, Indian Retailer
