Leadership

WE

Make It Happen.

Why BRC Korea

There was no one
doing both sides
at once.
So we built it.

After 25 years crossing between Seoul and Shanghai, Annie Zhang noticed something: every brand moving Korea → China needed a different partner. Every brand going the other way needed yet another. No single player understood both markets well enough to operate in both simultaneously.

BRC Korea was founded in 2026 to close that gap. Not as a consulting firm. Not as an agency. As a brand operating platform — with equity in the brands we build, and networks on both sides that no one else has assembled in one place.

ANNIE ZHANG

Founder & CEO
Education
Ewha Womans University
Fashion Marketing, MA
Experience
25+ yrs
Korea–China crossborder
Brands Built from 0
3
To global distribution

Over 25 years building brands across Korea and China — from founding China's first fast-fashion accessory brand 7princess (240+ stores nationwide) to creating COSMETEA, the world's first tea-concept beauty brand distributed in 50+ countries and winner of Pentawards 2017 Gold. Annie Zhang now leads BRC Korea as the definitive Korea–China crossborder brand platform.

Career Timeline
2007
7PRINCESS

China's first fast-fashion accessory brand. 240+ stores nationwide.

2015
COSMETEA

World's first tea-concept beauty. 50+ countries. Pentawards 2017 Gold.

2017
GENTLE MONSTER

Early investor in global eyewear icon.

2021
BRC Brand Republic

0→1 brand incubating platform launch.

2026
BRC KOREA

Korea–China crossborder brand platform launch.

Advisory Board
Brand Strategy

YANG MUN-SUNG

Yang Mun-sung

Conceptual Inc. CEO. 20+ years global brand strategy advisory for Amorepacific, L'Oréal, CJ Oliveyoung, Shinsegae Group, Clio, KGC and Korea's leading FMCG brands.

K-BeautyFMCGGlobal
Investment

LEE SANG-HOON

Lee Sang-hoon

KNet Investment Partners, Investment Director. Korea University Mechanical Engineering / UT Austin PhD. Samsung Electronics, 20 years tech commercialization and venture investment.

VentureM&ATech
China Market

WU

OIB Founder

OIB Founder. Extensive network across China's major distribution and brand groups. 20+ years hands-on Korea–China crossborder business with deep MCN and retail connections.

ChinaDistributionMCN
Proof of Concept · Annie's Own Brand
Est. 2015 · Seoul

COSMETEA

World's First Tea-Concept Beauty Brand

50+
Countries
PENTAWARDS
2017 Gold
Packaging Award
2017
EE Cushion Hit

Founded in 2015 as the world's first tea (茶) concept beauty brand. COSMETEA combined traditional tea culture with Korean skincare science — a brand concept original enough to earn global distribution in 50+ countries and Pentawards Gold in 2017. The EE cushion product became a megahit within two years of launch.

"COSMETEA was the test run for what BRC Korea does today — building a brand from a concept, taking it global, and executing every step ourselves."

— Annie Zhang, Founder

Track Record
3
Brands Built from 0
50+
Countries Distributed
240+
Retail Stores Operated
25+
Years in Korea–China
Our Belief

A great brand partner has
done it themselves —
more than once.

BRC Korea was founded on a single conviction: that the most credible brand advisors are those who have built brands from scratch, navigated real markets, made real mistakes — and succeeded. Our team is not assembled from MBA programs. It is built from entrepreneurs.

Every partnership BRC enters is an equity-aligned commitment. We grow when you grow. That alignment isn't a pitch — it's the structure of every deal we do.