This article was published on the ChosunBiz MoneyMove (MM) site at 10:12 a.m. on Jan. 20, 2026.
New venture capital firm Tail Ventures hit the jackpot on its first exit. It sold a small stake in beauty medical device startup Innosus, which it acquired with a 50 million won investment in 2022, to a global VC. Tail Ventures plans to keep its follow-on investment equity to seek additional revenue in the future.
According to the VC industry on the 20th, Tail Ventures recently sold part of its stake in Innosus (about 3%) to U.S.-based VC Altos Ventures. As Altos Ventures pushed a 10 billion won new share investment in Innosus, it is understood to have also acquired some of Tail Ventures' existing shares in Innosus. The sale price was reported to be about 2.5 billion won.
With the sale of existing shares, Tail Ventures recovered five times its invested principal in about four years. It is the first exit for Tail Ventures, a new VC founded in Sept. 2020; Tail Ventures was the first investor in Innosus in 2022, its third year after founding, making a preemptive 50 million won investment at a corporate valuation of about 15 billion won.
Its investment strategy targeting founders with medical backgrounds paid off. Innosus, established in Feb. 2022, focuses on the next-generation beauty medical device AllTight, which applies the genetic heating principle used in cancer treatment. At the time of investment, Tail Ventures highly evaluated the capabilities of CEO Shim Jae-yong, a Seoul National University College of Medicine graduate.
After Tail Ventures' investment, Innosus achieved steep top-line growth. Using ultrafrequencies that vibrate about 40 million times per second, the device drew attention for causing less pain and fewer side effects than existing high-frequency lifting devices, and sold more than 200 units within 10 months of launch. Export contracts were also signed with Japan, Hong Kong and Brazil.
Based on new funds raised from Altos Ventures, Innosus plans to accelerate entry into global markets such as North America and Europe and to carry out research and development (R&D) for next-generation product development. Altos Ventures said it decided to invest because it focused on Innosus' growth potential combining beauty and technology.
Tail Ventures is known to plan to keep its follow-on investment equity intact and seek additional revenue even after exiting its initial Innosus investment stake. Tail Ventures made its first investment from its first blind fund of 5 billion won and the following year formed a 1.5 billion won project fund to make a follow-on investment in Innosus.
A VC industry official said, "The seed investment portion was strategically recovered, but they still hold a larger portion and expectations are high," adding, "With just the first exit from Innosus, Tail Ventures has already recovered half of the 5 billion won total raised for its blind fund."