[Exclusive] BankSalad Begins Restructuring Process

Financial Difficulties Lead to Workforce Reduction
Expanding Business Scope with Self-Management Services

BankSalad, a fintech company based on 'MyData,' has begun restructuring. This is interpreted as due to worsening market conditions and deteriorating financial circumstances.

According to the investment banking (IB) industry on the 7th, BankSalad recently accepted voluntary retirement applications from employees. Attention is focused as the company is reducing staff across all departments, not just specific ones. The scale of this voluntary retirement is reported to be several dozen people.

A BankSalad representative said, "We are in the process of reorganizing some teams to improve work efficiency and organizational productivity related to changes in business strategy." In this regard, an IB industry insider added, "The business model is shaking and losing direction," and "It is questionable how long they can sustain with the existing investment funds."

Last year, BankSalad was valued at 600 billion KRW and successfully raised 135 billion KRW in Series D funding. The valuation doubled compared to the previous investment round. At that time, SKS Private Equity (SKS PE), KT, and Kia invested.

As a result, SKS PE became the second-largest shareholder of BankSalad, and KT became the third-largest shareholder. With the secured investment funds, BankSalad set a goal to become the only data company providing neutral hyper-personalized services in the financial and health sectors, moving beyond its existing services.

This workforce reduction is interpreted as an attempt to ease financial pressure. Since most of the investment funds have been used for hiring, it is expected that they will seek a way out by significantly reducing labor costs.

Founded in 2012, BankSalad has steadily attracted external funds, starting with a 1.9 billion KRW seed investment in 2015. After receiving 3 billion KRW in Series A funding in 2017, it completed a 14 billion KRW Series B investment in the same year.

Subsequently, in the Series C funding round conducted in 2019, it successfully raised 45 billion KRW. From 2020, BankSalad aimed for 100 billion KRW in Series D funding and succeeded in raising a total of 135 billion KRW in Series D, starting with KT. During this process, it secured various financial investors (FI) and strategic investors (SI).

Starting as a data-based 'integrated asset management platform,' BankSalad has expanded its scope to self-management services by providing asset and health management services. In 2021, it gained attention by exclusively offering genetic testing services in the industry. Recently, it has been providing unlimited free genetic testing services.