[Life Act 3 Companies] The 'A~Z' of Seniors by Hanguk Senior Research Institute

Lee Jin-yeol, CEO of the Korea Senior Research Institute. He posed next to his life-size cutout set up in the office. Photo by Heo Young-han younghan@

[Asia Economy Reporter Yoo In-ho] An IT startup company located in a shared office building near Gangnam Station in Seoul. Here, about 50 MZ generation (Millennials + Generation Z) in their 20s and 30s passionately gather to research everything from ‘A to Z’ about middle-aged and elderly people. Total solutions for the silver industry, including employment for middle-aged and elderly people and nursing care services, come from their minds. This is the Korea Senior Research Institute.

The Korea Senior Research Institute is hard to guess what kind of company it is just by its name. Started in 2019, the Korea Senior Research Institute is a startup company that provides total solutions through a combination of human touch and related IT technologies needed by the silver generation. CEO Jin-yeol Lee (33) described the identity of the Korea Senior Research Institute as “a silver tech company that provides home-visit nursing services to help seniors who have received long-term care grades live comfortably at home, and also handles related tasks such as recruiting and job placement for care workers.” It means a silver industry based on IT.

The core business of the Korea Senior Research Institute is providing home-visit nursing services under the brand ‘Smile Senior.’ Smile Senior has over 20,000 registered care workers and operates more than 60 centers nationwide.

‘HiCare,’ an IT solution that automates administrative tasks of home-visit nursing centers, is also a unique feature of the Korea Senior Research Institute. HiCare informs center owners of the administrative tasks required by the long-term care insurance system and digitalizes inconvenient manual paperwork to improve efficiency through an administrative automation system.

CEO Lee explained, “Before starting the company, I began by operating a franchise that provided home-visit nursing services while taking an interest in the silver industry. I personally cared for seniors and experienced the administrative tasks that owners must handle. Through this hands-on experience, I felt many inconveniences in the home-visit nursing market and sought ways to solve them, which led to the development of the ‘HiCare’ solution.”

The Korea Senior Research Institute also operates ‘Yobosarang,’ a platform that helps recruit and find jobs for care workers, most of whom are middle-aged and older people in their 50s and above. Each senior requires different care, and care workers have varying scopes of care they can provide. Through Yobosarang, care workers can find care jobs that suit them.

CEO Lee said, “We strive to provide jobs as care workers to middle-aged and elderly people preparing for their third act of life, from their late 40s to early 70s. Since they are future potential customers, there is a high level of interest in the silver industry, which has long-term sustainability.”

CEO Lee entered the silver industry because he judged that the related market would continue to grow in the ultra-aged society era. Although care facilities providing nursing services are private, more than 85% of the costs are supported by the government. According to this system, the scale of nursing services exceeded 11 trillion won as of 2021 and has grown at an average annual rate of over 20% since 2008.

The reason CEO Lee chose the silver industry for his second startup is for these reasons. His first startup was related to idol fandom services. From 2013 to 2018, he served as CEO of Mydol Co., Ltd., which operated a fandom service called Mydol.

However, at that time, the domestic related industry was limited to markets in China and Southeast Asia, and he judged the market growth potential to be low. Therefore, he sold the service at the end of 2018 and re-established the Korea Senior Research Institute in July 2019.

CEO Lee emphasized, “After selling Mydol, I focused on the theme of ‘aging,’ which all humanity experiences equally and commonly. I became interested in the silver industry, which is not an explosively growing industry in a short period but can grow continuously across multiple generations.” He added, “My dream is to build a company that lasts 100 years, not one that disappears suddenly due to rapid growth.”

Jin-Yeol Lee, CEO of Korea Senior Research Institute / Photo by Younghan Heo younghan@

Below is a Q&A.

- The founding members seem young, in their early 30s. What motivated you to start a silver industry business?

▲ This is not my first startup. From 2013, I founded and operated Mydol, a mobile service used by fans, for about seven years and sold the service. Later, I found an opportunity in the major market change caused by demographic shifts. While reviewing various businesses under the keyword ‘aging,’ I discovered the keyword ‘home care.’

- What kind of company is the Korea Senior Research Institute?

▲ It is a company that provides various online and offline infrastructure and solutions for ‘home care institutions.’ We provide home-visit nursing services, day care services, and welfare equipment rental and purchase services. Home care services are basically supported by more than 85% of costs through the long-term care insurance system, which is like a sibling system to health insurance. We generate revenue by providing education programs, IT solutions, and offline infrastructure at all stages of home care institutions’ startup, operation, preparation for public evaluation, closure, and service expansion.

- What is the competitive advantage unique to the Korea Senior Research Institute?

▲ The biggest advantage is that the founders have direct experience caring for seniors. Because we have operated home-visit nursing centers ourselves, we understand the difficulties and areas needing improvement in the field. We know the challenges from the perspective of center operators and the hardships of seniors using the services. Actually, the service recipients are seniors. What they want is not advanced technology or convenient platforms but stable care. Convenient systems are necessary for guardians and center owners. Therefore, we focus on balancing both improving the quality of offline nursing services and enhancing the convenience and efficiency of those providing the services through digitalization.

- What are the specific business models and features?

▲ We provide home care services directly and indirectly under the brand ‘Smile Senior.’ Through Smile Senior Nursing Center, a 100% subsidiary, we support home-visit nursing services, day care centers, and welfare equipment rental services in Seoul, Gyeonggi, and Daegu regions. Typically, providing home care services to one person generates about 1 to 1.5 million won in monthly service sales. Additionally, we productize the brand value, know-how, manuals, and IT solutions gained from operating directly managed home care centers into B2B products and provide them to individual entrepreneurs. Furthermore, the shortage of care workers is a serious issue recently, so based on the know-how obtained from operating direct centers, we offer ‘Yobosarang,’ a recruitment and job placement service connecting centers and care workers.

- You emphasize ‘Digi-log,’ a combination of digital and analog in the silver industry. What is the goal of this approach?

▲ When people think of startups, they usually think of companies digitally transforming traditional industries through technology. However, ironically, the Korea Senior Research Institute emphasizes ‘digital technology’ to ‘do analog better.’ We call this ‘Digi-log.’ The customer experience of home care services ultimately lies in ‘human touch.’ No matter how advanced AI, robots, or other technologies become, basic senior care must be done by humans. Technology only assists those people.

- What are the future vision and goals of the Korea Senior Research Institute?

▲ The Korea Senior Research Institute does not engage in cutthroat competition like a chicken game. Our goal is to be a company that continuously lays the infrastructure of the industry’s upper and lower streams, growing alongside the market. We aim to become a company that can provide all home care services for seniors within an app, from services to products, and secure all value chains desired in the home care market.