YEPODA

Yepoda is a Berlin-based skincare company founded in 2020 that develops and manufactures Korean-style beauty products for the European market [4]. Trade publication Women's Wear Daily has described it as a "Europe-born K-beauty brand," a distinction that captures its structure: the operating entity is the German company Yepoda GmbH, registered in Berlin, while the products themselves are developed and made in South Korea [2]. The brand name comes from the Korean word 예쁘다 (yepoda), meaning "pretty."

The company positions itself around clean, vegan formulas and a sustainability commitment, and grew quickly through its first years: it reached more than one million customers and over 65 million euros in revenue by 2024, raised a Verlinvest-led Series B round in 2025, and moved from direct-to-consumer sales into more than 100 Sephora stores across Europe [4]. It remains active, with its most recent product news dated March 2026 [5].

Yepoda was founded in 2020 by Sander Joonyoung van Bladel and Veronika Strotmann, a married couple based in Berlin [4]. The company's own about page names the founders by first name only — "Sander Joonyoung and Veronika" — while editorial coverage in Women's Wear Daily and Beauty Independent supplies their full surnames; the legal imprint lists the managing director as "Sander Dyun-Jang Byun van Bladel," a legal-document form of the same person [3].

By the company's account, the idea grew out of repeated trips to South Korea to visit Sander's family. European friends kept asking the couple to bring back Korean skincare, and they saw both strong demand and limited access to these products in Europe. "We founded Yepoda in 2020 to make Korean skincare more accessible and bring the power of K-Beauty to Europe," the founders have said, "without ever compromising on our values." The brand launched direct-to-consumer in Germany in April 2020 [4].

The brand scaled rapidly after its 2020 launch. It closed a Series A funding round in December 2022, backed by investors including Slingshot Ventures and V3 Ventures, and expanded across Italy, Spain, France and the United Kingdom, with Italy becoming its largest market and France its second. In December 2024 it opened online sales in the United States.

By the end of 2024 the company reported exceeding 65 million euros in revenue and more than one million customers, alongside year-on-year growth that Beauty Independent put at 120 percent and WWD at 130 percent [4][2]. In March 2025 Yepoda raised a Series B round led by the investment firm Verlinvest and debuted at retail in more than 100 Sephora stores across Europe, including flagship locations on the Champs-Élysées in Paris and in Milan [4]. The company opened pop-up stores in cities including Milan, Paris and Rome the same year.

Yepoda GmbH has remained majority-owned by its founders [2]. Outside investment has come through successive funding rounds rather than acquisition: a 2022 Series A with backers such as Slingshot Ventures and V3 Ventures, and a 2025 Series B led by Verlinvest, with earlier investors V3 Ventures and JamJar Investments also participating. According to Beauty Independent, Verlinvest typically invests between 25 million and 100 million euros at this growth stage, though the round's size was not disclosed.

The company frames its approach as "Korean effectiveness meets sustainable solutions," and its stated mission is to make Korean skincare more accessible in Europe. Its products are built around the multi-step K-beauty routine, which Yepoda presents as emphasising prevention over repair and layering products in a set sequence — from oil and water cleansing through toning, targeted treatments and a final moisturising step.

Alongside this, the brand describes itself as a clean-beauty company. It says all of its products are vegan and cruelty-free, and lists a set of excluded ingredients including silicones, parabens, formaldehyde, PEGs, mineral oils, microplastics and sulfates. Its core customers, according to Beauty Independent, are 25- to 34-year-olds in urban and suburban areas.

Yepoda's range is skincare-focused and uses a consistent "The ___" naming convention. Its bestsellers, as reported by WWD, include The Calm Balm oil cleanser, The Bubble Double cleansing foam and The Dewy Day tinted skincare cushion [2]. Other named products span toning mists, serums, targeted treatments and moisturisers such as The Make My Day Cream. Formulas draw on ingredients common to the category, including hyaluronic acid, niacinamide, vitamin C, salicylic acid, panthenol, centella and bakuchiol. The brand has priced its products roughly between 18 and 35 euros. In 2024 it also introduced limited-edition haircare and a hand cream, and in 2026 launched a refill range.

Sustainability features prominently in how Yepoda presents itself. The company is a certified B Corporation and a partner of 1% for the Planet, donating one percent of every order to environmental projects [1]. Its giving-back page details donations to environmental partners such as One Tree Planted, the Plastic Soup Foundation and WWF, as well as annual contributions to LGBTQIA+ organisations across Germany, Italy, Spain and France. The brand markets its packaging under a "Zero Plastic Inside" badge and, in 2026, added a refill range that it describes as a further step in reducing packaging waste [5].

Yepoda is active. It is a fast-growing, venture-funded skincare company operating across several European markets and online in the United States, with its most recent publicly dated activity — the launch of its refill range — recorded in March 2026 [5]. As of the reported figures, it employed around 85 people.