Korean-Inspired Fragrance Brand Elorea Looks To Expand Retail Footprint Following Funding Round

Amid a volatile and intensely competitive retail environment, South Korean-inspired fragrance brand Elorea is doubling down on its own brick-and-mortar stores, laying the groundwork for a broader international retail footprint as it builds on early success at its New York, Los Angeles and Seoul locations.

Launched officially in 2022 as a direct-to-consumer brand, Elorea has opened three brick-and-mortar locations over the past two years, starting in New York in 2023 followed by Los Angeles and Seoul in 2025. CEO and co-founder Wonny Lee points out the stores have shortened the brand’s typical 30- to 45-day conversion window—the span between online discovery and purchasing a full-size fragrance—and given Elorea greater control over how its story is told, a rarity with wholesale partners.

“We had a PO with Saks, and I believe we were talking to Sephora at the time as well, but it was always like, ‘Hey, we’ll give you some shelf space,’” he says. “But we had such a deep story in why we wanted to build out our fragrances, why we chose certain ingredients. The why didn’t exist on that shelf.” In DTC, he adds, “That 30 to 45 days is actually really challenging for a business that’s growing. It’s a loss leader and you’re in the minus from day one. I was like, we have a really challenging problem because we’re going to run out of cash. That’s how a lot of these DTC brands failed over the last decade.”

Elorea is eyeing London and Paris for future retail locations. For the latter, Lee envisions erecting a hanok, a traditional Korean house made entirely of wood, in the middle of the city. “Paris, being the center of the world for perfumery, that’s my dream,” he says. “That’s what it means to be on the global stage. It would symbolize to Korean culture and Koreans all around the world that we have a place to stand here.”

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Elorea’s retail expansion is being supported by external funding. The brand recently raised $5 million in a funding round led by Willow Growth Partners and participation from Era VC, according to PitchBook, bringing its total investment to $7.75 million. Elorea previously raised an oversubscribed $2 million seed round in 2022 led by CJ Investment, a subsidiary of South Korean conglomerate CJ Group, which produced Oscar-winning film “Parasite” through an entertainment division and owns beauty retailer Olive Young, with participation from Strong Ventures and Bass Ventures. Prior to that, it raised $750,000 in pre-seed funding. The brand declined to discuss the $5 million funding round.

Claire Cherry, partner at Era VC, says Elorea “marries an amazing product with a brand narrative that’s resonating exceptionally with consumers. We love that the brand is centered around the ethos of bringing traditional Korean ingredients and molecules to the forefront of a fragrance narrative with a beautiful content-first approach. One of the most exciting parts for us was the team’s desire to own their relationship directly with consumers through their own retail stores, alongside owned digital channels. The vibrancy and customer love we’ve seen at these stores is exactly how we want our brands to show up in real life. From our involvement in Seed, Aesop and others, we’ve seen firsthand the importance of immersive content creation alongside exceptional product quality to generate early customer evangelists. We saw this in Elorea and are excited for what the future holds for the next stage of growth in the US and across Asia.”

Lee notes Elorea’s retail stores operate on a one- to two-year payback plan, and the New York City location recouped its investment in less than six months. Elorea is targeting year-over-year growth of 100% to 125%. The brand’s stores  have bolstered its DTC business, which Lee estimates accounts for about 50% of revenue. “Anytime we open a new store, business actually improves on both sides,” he says. “The more placements we have around the world, the more validation it has and the more real it is to more people.”

Elorea’s stores are centered around a “Scent & Sip Experience.” On top of its full fragrance assortment, each location features a café offering specialty drinks speaking to the scent profiles of bestsellers. Every store has a distinct theme. The New York space is exhibition-oriented and features work by Korean artists. The Los Angeles location leans into the architecture of its historic building overlooking the Hollywood Hills. The Seoul store reflects the music culture of the Itaewon neighborhood where it’s situated.

The timing of the Seoul location, which opened at the end of 2025, proved particularly prescient. “There were a bunch of K-pop musical actors touring the U.S. and Europe, and then—I can’t plan this—but the ‘K-Pop Demon Hunters’ Netflix movie came out. It went nuts and it was the number one thing in Korea, too, not to mention the second coming of K-Beauty,” says Lee. “We’re grateful all of this happened at the same time, and it felt right for us to tell our story to Koreans.”

Lee was born in New York and is Korean-American. His wife and co-founder Su min Park was born in Korea. New York-based Elorea has served as a way for Lee, formerly head of digital and marketing at the sneaker brand Greats and operating partner at digitally native brand platform Detail Provisions Co., and Park to get closer to their Korean roots. Elorea is a portmanteau of the words “elements” and “Korea.”

Elorea’s fragrance selection has expanded from four scents in 2022 to 16 today. The prices of its 50-ml. and 100-ml. bottles have risen to $160 and $240 from $125 and $195 as a result of higher tariffs and increased production, labor and material costs. The brand releases fragrance collections in four-scent drops, generally once a year.

Early on, Elorea leaned heavily on $30 discovery sets featuring four 2-ml. fragrances and a voucher that could be applied toward a full-size bottle, a strategy Lee says helped drive trial but often stretched the path to purchase in the brand’s DTC model. Elorea manufactures in New Jersey and often uses ingredients from South Korea. In addition to fragrances, it sells diffusers, hand cream and hand and body wash. Elorea has 16 full-time employees and 41 overall globally and is seeking to grow its team with a head of marketing for the United States and South Korea, a head of finance and a product development associate.