CNA Luxury: From fried chicken to K-beauty, he's bringing Korean culture to Singapore


Luke Yi became an entrepreneur when he founded Korean fried chicken chain Chicken Up. Now the owner of two K-beauty salons, one of which houses a cafe, Yi finds joy in bringing unique lifestyle experiences to Singapore.

As a former consultant in the IT industry, Luke Yi enjoyed much success in the corporate world, having worked for big names such as Hewlett-Packard and Cisco Systems. But after 16 years in the industry, Yi found himself listless and bored.

“The work was very routine,” he lamented. “I was also travelling a lot. More than half of my time was spent on the plane.”  

Born in South Korea, Yi migrated to New Zealand at the age of 18. After working in Australia for 10 years, he moved to Singapore.

Nine years later, Yi’s entrepreneurship journey has seen him expand into the beauty industry with the opening of Korean beauty salon, Leekaja. Marrying both the F&B and beauty worlds, he opened Walking On Sunshine, a hair salon-cum-cafe, in 2018.

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