Clöud Cafe Targets 2,000 Doors and $35 Million as Matcha Hits Beauty Aisles

Clöud Cafe, a Korean-inspired functional beverage brand, will expand to more than 2,000 collective doors at Ulta Beauty and Target in November. The brand, launched in late 2024 by Olive Kim, is on track to exceed $35 million in retail sales in 2026, according to the company.

Kim founded Clöud Cafe with an assortment of collagen-infused coffees and teas. Her family launched The Crème Shop as a Los Angeles manufacturing business in the 1980s. She turned it into a K-beauty product line that LG H&H acquired in 2022. After exiting The Crème Shop, Kim, who is Korean American, became fascinated with collagen and saw an opening where wellness meets Korea's coffee scene.

"The coffee culture in South Korea is so innovative and so beautiful…every coffee shop is extremely aesthetically pleasing. They take a lot of pride in the ingredients they use and where their beans are sourced from. They each have specialty drinks," Kim said. "I thought about combining the two — like, what if we could create a wonderful, delicious coffee that also has wellness benefits?"

What's in the sachets?

Each serving contains 1,000 milligrams of marine collagen. Different varieties add other actives:

• vitamin C
• zinc
• L-theanine (an amino acid linked to calm focus)
• probiotics

The drinks come as single-serving powder sachets, priced at $20 for packs of 10. Users dissolve them with hot water and can serve them iced or with milk.

Flavors include Churro Latte, Ube Latte, Royal Milk Tea, Hot Choco Zero and Strawberry Matcha Latte. The Strawberry Matcha Latte is the brand's top seller.

Kim said taste separates the brand from the collagen category's established players. "A lot of collagen powders or pills on the market are not that enjoyable to consume, they can have a very gamey or fishy aftertaste," she said.

Why does a coffee brand sit at Ulta?

Clöud Cafe entered Ulta in March, becoming the first coffee brand carried by the retailer. The brand also sells at Anthropologie. Kim knows the territory: she previously launched The Crème Shop at Ulta during the first wave of K-beauty.

"[The Ulta team] is so innovative and open to new ideas, and Korean culture and Korean wellness," Kim said.

What does this change for ingestible beauty?

The move signals that major beauty retailers now treat ingestible wellness products as shelf-worthy alongside cosmetics, a shift that could open doors for other functional beverage brands. For Clöud Cafe, retail presence anchors growth. The company is also increasing investments in eventing and sampling.

"For the next 12 months, our team is focused on doing a lot of community events," Kim said. "We want to have people try our products directly, because as soon as they do, we've seen they instantly fall in love with it."

The November expansion to more than 2,000 doors will test whether a beauty-led retail strategy can scale a beverage brand toward that $35 million 2026 target.