[K-Women Talk] Young People, Seize the Startups Destined to Become Unicorns

An Era Where Unicorn Companies Shine
Recommended Startup Search Sites
Apply for the Future "Nekakubaedangto"

Samsung Electronics vs Rebellion. The winner of this balance game posted on a workplace community was the rising star Rebellion. The reasons Rebellion was chosen include being the hottest artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductor design company, offering salaries comparable to large corporations, having an excellent C-level (Chief Level) team to work with, and providing stock options that make it an attractive life-changing opportunity.

Despite growing concerns about our tech companies due to the China-originated deep-sea shock, unicorn companies like Rebellion are quietly growing in South Korea as well. In fact, about 70,000 companies have grown from startups into innovative enterprises, among which 40,000 are tech venture companies. These 40,000 ventures employ 800,000 young people, which is by no means a small number.

The evaluation of startup backgrounds has also changed in the job and career change market. Mid-sized and large companies are actively recruiting people who have worked with autonomy in startups. They are familiar with new technologies and tools and have a high understanding of related job duties due to working in small elite teams. The consensus is that startups equipped with new technologies are preferred over employees of stagnant small and medium-sized enterprises.

The problem is that it is difficult to obtain information about promising startups. It is hard to find sales and operating profit data, and information is scarce even in employment cafes or communities. After a long search, the author’s top pick is ‘Unicorn Factory.’ The highlight of this site is the ‘Data Lab’ menu, which allows searches based on conditions. You can extract which startups exist by investment stage and investment amount.

Using the above Data Lab, let’s pick a few promising startups. After activating the unicorn company button and extracting companies that received investments between 30 billion and 50 billion KRW, 23 companies appeared on the list. Sorting those with sales exceeding 10 billion KRW yielded 15 companies, many of which were new to the author, which was quite surprising.

First, MOREH, an AI infrastructure solution company with 4.4 years of experience and sales of 27.5 billion KRW, stands out. It was founded by a research team from Seoul National University that developed the domestic supercomputer ‘Cheondung.’ They develop large language models focused on enhancing Korean language response performance and enterprise AI cloud solutions. In the lifestyle sector, Rapolabs stands out with sales of 41.2 billion KRW in 4.8 years. They operate the fashion platform Queenit and the fresh food direct delivery platform Paldogam. It is the fourth entrepreneurial challenge of two Seoul National University business administration graduates.

In the management and HR field, Jarvis & Villains is outstanding. It is a fintech (finance + technology) company known for its tax accounting service SamzzumSam. It was founded by Kim Beomseop, Chief Global Strategy Officer (CGO), who graduated from KAIST and created Remember, the iconic business card management application. In the eco-friendly energy sector, the 7-year-old dishwashing rental service company ‘Ppodeuk’ was extracted. Through its fully automated ‘Clean Tech Center,’ about 400,000 cleaned dishes are supplied daily to companies.

In advanced sensor technology for mobility, Bitsensing is notable. It produces radar known as the ‘eyes of autonomous vehicles.’ It was founded by a former Mando executive. In smart car technology, Autocrypt is outstanding. It passed the preliminary listing review of the Korea Exchange in about five years with autonomous driving security technology. It was spun off from the security company Tenta Security. In big data technology, Flex, with 5 years of experience, stands out. Through its integrated HR management platform ‘Flex,’ it provides attendance and payroll management, performance, and recruitment automation services, generating sales of 16 billion KRW.

Aren’t there really many good startups you don’t know about? If you want to secure the future ‘Nekakubaedangto,’ search and apply.

Lee Sook-eun, CEO of Lee’s Bookstore and publisher of Employment Backbone