Kick The Hurdle Secures Strategic Investment from Hyundai Department Store

Healthcare startup Kick the Hurdle (CEO Kim Taeyang) announced on the 16th that it has secured investment from Hyundai Department Store and formed a strategic partnership. This investment was made to install Kick the Hurdle's personalized healthcare platform 'Pittamin' store at The Hyundai Seoul located in Yeouido, Seoul, and to operate a customized healthcare pop-up store in collaboration with famous creators. Pittamin is a healthcare platform where users can consult with pharmacists and receive recommendations for health functional foods and health solutions tailored to their health conditions.

Kim Taeyang, CEO of Kick the Hurdle, and Park Chaehun, Executive Director of Hyundai Department Store's Future Business Division, are signing an investment contract and taking a commemorative photo at Hyundai Department Store headquarters.

Kick the Hurdle plans to expand customer touchpoints, which were mainly online, to offline through the partnership with Hyundai Department Store. Additionally, starting with this investment, both companies agreed to strengthen their relationship and continuously seek to expand cooperation. Kick the Hurdle expects that expanding business cooperation to the entire Hyundai Department Store Group will enable the discovery of various business cooperation models. For example, through joint product development with Hyundai Bio Land, they can lead the health functional food market, and with Hyundai Green Food, they can promote personalized healthcare business considering nutrition from personal health. Furthermore, with Hyundai Easywell, it is also possible to provide personalized healthcare welfare programs to various companies.

CEO Kim Taeyang, a licensed pharmacist, and Vice CEO Park Jinhwan, who majored in biotechnology at Tsinghua University in China, founded Kick the Hurdle in 2018 and entered the healthcare business by launching the health functional food brand 'Phytotics.' In 2021, they started the personalized health management platform Pittamin and have been growing into a comprehensive healthcare company. They completed their Series B investment round last March, with a total accumulated investment amount of 16 billion KRW to date.

Kim Taeyang, CEO of Kick the Hurdle, said, "We provide the value of optimized healthcare for individuals through the pharmacist-designed health functional food Phytotics and the personalized health management platform Pittamin," adding, "With Hyundai Department Store's strategic investment, we will strive to instill the awareness that health management should start from a young age."