[NE Log] Limpid Kim Hee-su... Nutrition Specialist Veterinarian Becomes Pet Food Brand CEO

Editor's Note[NE Log] is a video content series produced for companies selected in ‘NEXT ELEVATION,’ a startup accelerator program established by Asia Economy.

Hello. I am Hee-Soo Kim, CEO of Limpid, a pet food tech startup operating the pet food platform ‘SaladPet’ and the complete pet food brand ‘TrustyFood’.

Since middle school, my dream was to become a veterinarian. I loved dogs so much, and I was the kind of kid who always woke up on Sunday mornings to watch SBS’s ‘Animal Farm.’ Every year on my birthday, I asked my parents to let me adopt a dog, and they always said, “If you get into veterinary school, we will let you adopt one,” and “So study hard.” They always dangled this bait. After retaking the college entrance exam, I was finally admitted to veterinary school, but my mother did not keep her promise, and I still do not have a pet. However, after studying veterinary medicine and becoming a veterinarian who cares for companion animals, I realized that being responsible for one dog or one cat is a very heavy responsibility that requires a lot of time, money, and passion. I am not yet prepared for that, so currently, I am focusing on making pet food that contributes to the health of companion animals as a veterinarian.

Why I Entered the Pet Food Industry Startup

Actually, all veterinarians who work in clinical practice would agree that the most common question from pet owners is about pet food. Naturally, I became interested in pet food itself. Since the history of companion animal culture in Korea is short, there are institutional limitations regarding pet food nutrition compared to the US and Europe. For example, in the US, the AAFCO (Association of American Feed Control Officials) and in Europe, the FEDIAF (European Pet Food Industry Federation) treat nutrition as a specialized veterinary field. In Korea, such aspects are not yet institutionalized, and pet food is managed under the same regulations as livestock feed. Therefore, pet food produced domestically does not meet the 40 to 50 detailed nutritional standards defined by the US or Europe, which I identified as a market problem from a veterinarian’s perspective. So, I started to think about how domestic companion animals could eat food that meets those standards and live healthily and happily, which led me to begin pet food research.

What Kind of Company is SaladPet?

SaladPet is our first product, which digitizes the experience of eating pet food. First, we analyzed all pet foods distributed domestically to understand what raw materials they contain, how those raw materials are absorbed inside the pet’s body, and how the absorbed nutrients relate to diseases, building a complex database. Using this complex database, through an app platform, pet owners can easily analyze the nutrition of pet food and input data about palatability and allergies, and the SaladPet app helps predict which foods the pet will like and which foods will not cause allergic reactions.

Currently, if a pet eats ABC food well but not DEF food, we analyze the common raw materials and ingredient characteristics of the ABC food the pet liked and the DEF food it did not like. Through data analysis, we recommend and predict what protein sources and kibble sizes the pet prefers. To improve accuracy, we do not rely solely on owner-input data but also use a DTC palatability test kit we developed ourselves to quantitatively and more accurately predict palatability. A similar concept is like the ‘Watcha’ app, where you input which movies you liked or disliked, and based on that data, it recommends movies you might enjoy. You can think of SaladPet as the pet food version of that, which is the easiest way to understand it.

The Importance of Palatability and Allergy Prediction

Since we started from a veterinary perspective focusing on nutrition and health, we concentrated a lot on how pets can eat nutritionally complete and veterinary-grade high-quality food. However, the more I talked with pet owners, the more I realized that the biggest factor influencing owners’ decisions when choosing and feeding pet food is palatability. No matter how nutritious the food is, if the pet refuses to eat it, it becomes meaningless. This is something I have felt more strongly the more I meet owners and work in the pet food industry. Currently, we define nutrition as something that must be met by the industry and companies within the system, while palatability and allergy concerns are becoming the main criteria for pet food selection among owners. This is an interesting aspect I am learning while working in the pet food industry.

I believe the domestic pet food trend is about five years behind the global trend. We aim to quickly catch up academically and industrially and develop and launch pet food so that domestic pet owners can choose food aligned with global trends and truly solve owners’ problems.

Looking at the global market, even the largest pet food manufacturers find it difficult to handle and formulate all 44 minerals and vitamins. Therefore, global companies outsource this part. When we developed the TrustyFood brand, there was not a single domestic manufacturer capable of matching these vitamins and minerals, so we signed contracts with global vitamin and mineral raw material suppliers and built a small premix factory in Guri to develop premixes for our brand. We also supply three premium raw food brands through advisory and raw material contracts.

For the domestic pet food industry to develop, if domestic pet food manufacturers have the will, we plan to set up infrastructure to provide premix consulting and supply and expand into the B2B business sector. We plan to attend CES in Las Vegas next January, and from that point, we aim to enter the global pet food market in earnest through our differentiators: data, kits, and platform. Our products do not contain chemical artificial flavorings but use natural and enzymatic flavorings, so the scent and taste are not unpleasant to humans. They are safe enough for humans to eat, and we always taste them ourselves at least once.

Key Points in Team Building and Relationships

In the pet food industry, there were no domestic competitors or references to benchmark. The history of the pet food industry in Korea is very short, and the market is mainly occupied by foreign brands rather than domestic ones. Therefore, rather than hiring team members who could quickly follow existing models, we focused on recruiting team members who truly want to create this market from scratch and build a pet food culture that ensures pets’ health. After working late, I enjoy spending time with co-founders and team members watching late-night movies and taking walks in the night air while chatting. During the two-hour movie, I completely detach from reality and focus on the story, which feels healing. Then, after the movie, we take a walk in the night air, talk, and manage stress together. This has become my hobby.

Limpid’s Direction and Values

Looking at global markets like the US and Europe, when considering the entire pet market rather than just pet food, companies centered around pet food such as Mars or Nestl? have scaled up and expanded into telemedicine, MSOs (Management Service Organizations) for animal hospitals, pet insurance, and so on. The industry itself is already moving toward consolidation. We see this as a stage the market has reached. However, in Korea, the pet industry is still mainly formed around vertical commerce*. Vertical commerce businesses inevitably incur huge losses in the early stages. We believe that eventually, the fragmented pet market in Korea will consolidate around the pet food market, which is the largest segment, and that only two or three major players will remain. As a startup handling pet food, we want to be one of those central companies.

Vertical Commerce

A compound word of ‘Vertical’ meaning vertical + ‘Commerce’ meaning business. It refers to a shopping platform that specializes in selling and providing specific products or services rather than offering a wide variety of products and services. Also called a specialty mall. In contrast, platforms that comprehensively handle various products and services are called general malls.