[Edaily Marketin YunJi Kim Reporter] Consumers’ perspectives on brands are changing. There is a growing trend toward consuming not only a product’s taste or price but also the brand’s identity, atmosphere, and story. Particularly in the restaurant and café market, where it has become difficult to differentiate oneself simply by quickly introducing trendy menu items, creating a reason for consumers to return has become crucial.

“Tokkia,” a Korean-style matcha brand currently attracting significant attention in London, England, has also capitalized on this trend. As interest in wellness grows and demand for matcha over coffee increases—particularly among younger consumers—Tokkia has added the unique identity of “Korean-style matcha” to the mix. In a local market accustomed to Japanese matcha, Tokkia has differentiated itself by promoting Korean matcha, and by capitalizing on the growing interest in K-culture, it is expanding its customer base.

Edaily met with CEO Lim Su-ji, who runs Tokkia. Rather than relying on outside investment to scale up the business, CEO Lim is a founder who generates revenue organically and uses those profits to move forward to the next stage. Although the brand started with matcha, her long-term vision is to grow Tokkia into a brand that incorporates a variety of Korean-inspired products.

Leaving the UK Financial Sector for the Most Korean of Products… The K-Matcha Gamble

After majoring in economics and philosophy at the London School of Economics (LSE), CEO Lim worked in project financing (PF) at a U.S.-based consulting firm for three and a half to four years. Her primary responsibility was structuring financing for public-private partnership (PPP) projects utilizing land owned by U.S. public agencies.

Although it was a stable career, she wasn’t convinced it was something she wanted to do for the long term. “At some point, I found myself wondering why I was working so hard,” CEO Lim said. “I didn’t have a specific business idea in mind from the start, but I wanted to do something distinctly Korean, and the yellow tea I encountered by chance during a visit to Korea gave me the inspiration.” An avid tea drinker, he subsequently began actively seeking out Korean teas. Noting the scarcity of brands in Europe specializing in Korean tea, he founded his first brand, “Be-oom,” after leaving his job.

His experience running Be-oom led to his second brand, Tokkiya. Although he had confirmed the potential of Korean tea, relying solely on premium teas had its limitations when it came to expanding his customer base and scaling the business. CEO Lim pondered products that could introduce Korean tea to the public in a more accessible way, and as a result, he shifted the business’s focus to Korean-style matcha.

Coincidentally, demand for matcha was rapidly growing in the UK, particularly among younger consumers. As existing coffee chains were expanding their matcha-related menus, it was a turning point where matcha was evolving from a drink for a select few enthusiasts into a mainstream category. For CEO Lim, matcha was not simply a product chosen to follow a trend, but rather a gateway to introduce the tea he loved and understood to a broader market.

“There are already many Japanese matcha brands, and there are plenty of specialty Chinese tea brands as well, but Korea was practically a blank slate,” he said. “It might have been risky, but I believed that, conversely, we could shape its image depending on how we presented it.”

Revenue Over Investment… “Self-Sustaining Growth” Built One Step at a Time

Tokiya’s growth strategy differs somewhat from that of startups that first secure external funding to rapidly expand their store network. While running the business in its early stages, CEO Lim realized the limitations of relying solely on external funding to formulate growth plans, and subsequently placed greater emphasis on generating cash from the business itself. He adopted an approach of opening stores with minimal capital, verifying revenue and margins, and then moving on to the next stage.

This principle was also applied to store expansion. When the response to the first store exceeded expectations, Tokkiya began searching for a location for its second store just one month after opening and opened it within eight months. However, the company does not use the number of stores as the sole measure of growth. CEO Lim explained, “We focus on confirming demand within the scope that our organization can handle and on generating the funds needed for the next expansion from the business itself.”

The company approaches external investment in the same vein. CEO Lim’s philosophy is to use investment not as a starting point for the business, but as a means to take a proven business to the next level. “We plan to launch a new product on our own around next year, assess its performance, and then decide whether to seek investment,” he said. “Since we haven’t conducted any funding rounds since receiving angel investment, I expect it will be a seed or Series A round.”

However, he maintains that even if external funding comes in, it will not be used solely to accelerate growth. CEO Lim explained, “In the process of growing the business, the areas where we’ve consistently invested are branding and design.” He continued, “Although Tokkiya is a small organization, we have a dedicated marketing team and work with external branding designers; furthermore, rather than replicating the same concept for our first and second locations, we’ve given each a distinct space and story.”

He consistently emphasized that such investments are essential for enhancing the brand’s sustainability rather than focusing on short-term cost efficiency. The company believes that while standardizing stores and replicating them in a similar format may accelerate expansion, it makes it difficult to create a compelling reason for consumers to return to Tokkiya. “Anyone can make something delicious, and you can drink matcha elsewhere,” he said. “The key is to ask why consumers should specifically seek out a brand infused with Korean identity.”

His experience in the financial sector, where he dealt with numbers and business viability, also influenced this perspective. He believes that while cutting costs and increasing the number of stores may help with short-term growth, it does not necessarily align with the approach needed to build long-term brand value. It’s not about ignoring the numbers, but rather about recognizing the brand’s value—which cannot be explained by numbers alone.

I asked CEO Lim about Tokkiya’s vision. “Our immediate goal is to generate revenue before seeking external funding, expand the business at a sustainable pace, and consistently invest in the brand,” he said. “Tokkiya’s growth strategy will be to gradually add Korean-inspired products one by one to the customer base we’ve built through matcha.”