MZ Generation 'Buzzes' Around Healthcare Startup Picked by Hyundai Department Store

Startup Kick the Hurdle Opens Regular Store at The Hyundai
Targeting MZ Generation: 'Easy and Fun Health Management'
A Journey to Find the Right Supplements for Me

In the basement of The Hyundai Seoul in Yeouido, Seoul, preparations are in full swing for the opening of the 'Pittamin Store.' Pittamin is a health functional food portioning and sales service. Previously, the service was provided through a smartphone application (app), but the offline store is designed to allow customers to physically experience the journey of finding the right supplements for themselves. This store was established through a partnership between the healthcare startup Kickthehurdle and Hyundai Department Store. We heard the story of how the app-based service was brought into a department store setting.

On the 16th, Kim Taeyang, CEO of Kickthehurdle, said, "With the opening of a regular store, we hope the experience of purchasing health functional foods becomes enjoyable and transforms into something necessary for oneself." CEO Kim, a licensed pharmacist, founded Kickthehurdle in 2018 with Vice President Park Jinhwan, who majored in biotechnology at Tsinghua University in China. Pittamin officially launched its service in 2021 after being selected as a regulatory sandbox demonstration company for the 'personalized health functional food portioning and sales' business. The core of the service is recommending supplements tailored to one’s health status and goals through one-on-one consultations with pharmacists via mobile, and selling these supplements in portioned amounts for appropriate consumption periods.

This service is especially popular among the MZ generation (Millennials + Generation Z). According to Kickthehurdle, Pittamin has over 1 million cumulative users. Considering that the number of users exceeded 350,000 just one year after its launch in September last year, the user base has been rapidly growing recently. The increase in users is mainly centered around the MZ generation. User engagement is also active, with 120,000 completed health surveys and 150,000 participation records in supplement intake. The service’s success is attributed to actively targeting the self-care trend of the MZ generation, represented by the new term 'Godsaeng (God生),' which means a planned and diligent lifestyle. CEO Kim said, "We are striving to instill the awareness that health management should start from a young age."

Building on these achievements, Kickthehurdle attracted strategic investment from Hyundai Department Store in May, which had a strong interest in healthcare services for the MZ generation. From the department store’s perspective, investing in startups is not only a co-growth model but also a way to secure differentiated content and enhance competitiveness. This is the background behind Kickthehurdle opening a regular store at The Hyundai Seoul in Yeouido.

Kickthehurdle designed the store, which opens on the 17th, as a space reminiscent of the future. Here, customers can create their own supplement combinations through professional pharmacist consultations. A notable feature is that customers can directly observe the portioning process of their personalized supplement combinations. In front of this store, a pop-up store will also be set up until the 27th of this month. The concept is to allow customers to design and experience personalized supplements through health-related surveys and pharmacist consultations.

Kickthehurdle expects these stores to serve as an opportunity to expand customer touchpoints, which were primarily online, into offline spaces. CEO Kim said, "We will provide the value of optimized healthcare for individuals as a personalized health management platform," adding, "We hope the Pittamin Store becomes a place where people interested in health management during the hot summer can recharge their energy."