This quarter’s K-Style Expo 2025 brought together some of Asia’s most promising startups, visionary investors, and passionate stakeholders in the beauty, gaming, and beauty-tech sectors. The startup pitching event, organized on September 17, in particular, stood out as a vivid showcase of innovation, creativity, and cross-border collaboration.
Since its launch in 2024, the Expo has carried a clear mission: to connect Korean startups with international investors and open new opportunities for cross-border growth. Now in its fifth edition, it has grown into a trusted stage for innovation, collaboration, and cultural exchange.
Seven Startups, One Global Stage — K-Style Expo Q3 2025 Recap
In just two hours, seven dynamic startups took the spotlight to pitch their bold visions, disruptive technologies, and globally scalable business models. From AI-powered beauty platforms to AI-driven gaming, each founder revealed a fresh perspective on how K-Style innovation is pushing boundaries — not only reshaping industries in Korea but also setting new benchmarks for global markets.
A Keynote Worth Remembering: John Lim on Venture Capital
One of the most anticipated moments of the day came from John Lim, who delivered an insightful keynote on “Navigating Venture Capital.” His session felt less like a talk and more like a practical playbook for founders looking to secure funding. With clarity and candor, Lim broke down the essentials of startup fundraising, showing entrepreneurs how to align their stories with what investors are truly seeking.
What elevated his keynote were the insider insights — practical, experience-driven lessons from the venture capital world that attendees wouldn’t find in any textbook.
Among his key messages:
- Tell a story that scales — craft pitch narratives that move beyond features to communicate long-term market vision.
- Be investor-ready — anticipate tough questions, prepare with rigor, and use resilience to build credibility.
- Think global, raise global — understand what international investors prioritize and learn how to bridge both cultural and financial expectations.
“If you have a warm introduction, that’s the best way to get a meeting. But even without it, if you show strong traction, most investors will still want to talk to you.”
– John Lim
For founders, it was a session packed with strategies to win investor trust on a global stage. For investors, it was a reminder of the creativity and determination shaping the next wave of K-Style entrepreneurship.
The Investors & Judges at K-Style Expo Q3 2025
And to shape all this, we had an esteemed panel of investors and startup ecosystem-building leaders helping our startups learn more and refine their global expansion strategies.
- Lasya Nadimpally and Anupam Pandey– Anthill Ventures, India
- Kenji Makiguchi – DIMENSION Inc., Japan
- John Lim – Meet Ventures, Singapore
- Gang Chern Sun – KOSME | K-Startup Center, Singapore
- Vito Christian Samudra – Living Lab Ventures (SinarMas Land), Indonesia
- Ananda Aditya – Meet Ventures, Indonesia
- Edmund Carulli and Deri Dino Lawrentus – BNI Ventures, Indonesia
- Gregory Keehwan Kwon – Wavesparks, South Korea
- Tamana Sharma –Mulia Sky Capital, Indonesia
VCs with expertise across ESG, Deep Tech, and D2C brought diverse perspectives, creating a rare opportunity for innovation to meet investment. Their varied backgrounds not only enriched the discussions but also turned the event into a powerful networking platform.
The Core of K-Style Expo
The seven startups at this year’s pitch event each illuminated a different side of K-Style’s evolving landscape:
- DeOther is reimagining gaming and esports by weaving cinematic storytelling into immersive, interconnected universes.
- Venus Labs — Venus App turns AI into a personal skin coach, guiding users with tailored routines while connecting them to clinics worldwide.
- MakeMake Inc. (SOOO) introduced its Blue-Life Beauty line — a swim-care innovation already making waves with rapid revenue growth.
- aeacbio (BeautiT) blends AIoT with luxury skincare, delivering smart dispensers that personalize beauty routines in real time.
- Ocean Child (FOURSUMMER) draws inspiration from surfer culture, crafting ESG-driven suncare solutions for active, outdoor lifestyles.
- KOROUND roots its eco-conscious R&D in Jeju Island, producing advanced formulations that merge nature and science.
- RiceKraft bridges continents, adapting K-Beauty expertise to meet India’s dermatological needs with locally relevant solutions.
Collectively, these ventures proved that K-innovation is no longer just about beauty trends — it’s about the fusion of culture, sustainability, and technology shaping products for a global future.
Why It Matters: A Platform for Founders and Investors
The K-Style Expo Q3 2025 stood out as more than just a showcase of products or a sequence of pitches — it reinforced its reputation as a premier platform for cross-border collaboration. By bringing together founders, investors, and industry stakeholders under one roof, the event demonstrated how Korean innovation continues to gain momentum on the global stage.
For startups, the Expo was an accelerator of visibility and opportunity. Beyond the chance to pitch, it served as a real-world classroom where founders could refine their storytelling, gain candid feedback from seasoned venture capitalists, and position themselves for international growth. The presence of investors spanning sectors from ESG and Deep Tech to D2C and consumer innovation provided startups with a multidimensional perspective of what it takes to scale globally. More than anything, it gave young companies a stage to test their global readiness — the ability to articulate a business model that resonates not just in Korea but across diverse markets.
For investors, the event functioned as a curated gateway to next-generation innovation. Instead of searching widely across fragmented ecosystems, they gained concentrated exposure to startups already demonstrating cultural relevance, technological creativity, and business acumen. The format allowed them to identify early-stage ventures capable of shaping the future of K-Beauty, lifestyle, gaming, and sustainability-focused products. Many remarked on the value of seeing founders navigate live Q&A, which revealed not only the strength of their ideas but also their resilience, adaptability, and vision.
What’s Next?
As Korea continues to position itself as a hub of culture-driven, technology-enabled innovation, the success of this quarter’s Expo highlights the growing synergy between entrepreneurs and investors. From K-Beauty to K-Entertainment to K-Content, the pipeline of ideas is stronger than ever.
With visionary keynotes, bold founders, and world-class investors, the Q3 2025 edition left participants energized and inspired. And as we prepare for our next event, the momentum is already building — a reminder that the future of K-Style innovation is not just bright, but global, ambitious, and unstoppable.
