The word "roadshow," which first appeared in the Washington Post in 1924, has an interesting history. One of the earliest road shows was Leon Trotsky's tour of the country in a train equipped with a movie theater during the Russian Civil War to spread his message. The term, which has been used since the 1870s to mean "street theater" or "itinerant performances," has since come to refer to premieres in the film industry that travel to major cities to promote new releases, and is now synonymous with investor presentations held by companies to attract investment.
On December 5 and 6, the Jeonbuk Creative Economy Innovation Center held an investment roadshow at Localstitch Sogong in Seoul. Ten promising startups, including those participating in the Center's J-curve Placement Program, participated in the event, which was attended by more than 20 investment judges from major venture capital firms, accelerators, and guarantee agencies in the Seoul metropolitan area.
The first day's pitches highlighted innovations in the local agriculture and green bio sectors. Gabitri operates a cold brew factory in Sunchang and developed Korea's first coffee jelly with more than 1% coffee. Through influencer marketing, leveraging the CEO's 24 years of acting experience, the company achieved 2,000% funding on Wadiz in 2021 and successfully entered the Asian market by signing a purchase agreement with Shanghai/Chongqing GBC in Chongqing, China, exporting to Shin Okubo in Japan, and signing an agreement with K-Mart in Vietnam. In particular, the company is working with Sunchang County to develop technology for cultivating Crystal Mountain varieties of coffee trees, which will help Korea become an exporter rather than an importer of coffee.
As the global coffee market continues to grow and consumer tastes diversify, Gavitri's innovative approach is noteworthy. In particular, their attempt to combine local agricultural technology with the food processing industry shows new possibilities for Korea's agri-food industry. Gavitri's challenge presents an attractive opportunity for investors, as it offers a new paradigm of vertical integration to the domestic coffee industry, which has relied solely on green coffee bean imports.
Timfarmer has implemented smart agriculture technology focused on growing in response to climate change. It has developed its own RTI (Light Proportional Temperature Control) algorithm to optimize greenhouse temperature and currently operates a consignment greenhouse in Sitar, Uzbekistan with a 3,000-acre tomato farm. The company plans to build an additional 6,000-square-meter greenhouse in Saemangeum in 2024. At a time when global food security is becoming an important issue, Timfarmer's smart farm technology is expected to become a key solution for increasing the stability and efficiency of food production beyond simple agricultural innovation.
In the fintech sector, Tomorrow was in the spotlight. It has signed an agreement with US KYC authentication company Clyde to solve the payment problem of foreigners who do not have a foreigner's registration card, and holds four patents. Specifically, it is targeting the KRW 20 trillion annual foreign inbound consumption market with an identity verification system using blockchain-based distributed identity verification (DID) technology, and aims to support TIPS in the second half of next year. As South Korea's tourism industry is rapidly recovering, Tomorrow's technology is expected to be a catalyst for improving payment convenience for foreign tourists and stimulating the domestic consumption market.
STOK introduced an innovative investment platform targeting the KRW 10 trillion annual pig farming market. It introduced Intflow's pig body shape analysis system and foot-and-mouth disease monitoring sensors to solve farmers' financial and labor shortages. It also provides systematic management through real-time control solutions and CCTV systems. In particular, the company has established a win-win cooperation model by introducing a farmer compensation system and a grade incentive system in the event of a 4.5% or higher mortality rate, and also operates a protection fund to protect investors. As the digital transformation of the livestock industry is becoming an urgent issue, STOK's platform is regarded as an innovative model that can simultaneously improve farmers' productivity and generate stable returns for investors.
Zumidang has developed an AI-powered customized F&B pairing solution based on objective polymer compound data. The solution uses gas chromatography equipment to obtain quantified data on food, which is then analyzed by AI models to provide optimal pairings. It has established an OEM production system in collaboration with 40 partner breweries. Recently, the company signed a $4 million contract with Vietnam's second-largest rum company, and is targeting KRW 28.6 billion in sales by 2025 by securing 25 franchisees. With the growing importance of data-driven decision-making in the F&B industry, Zumidang's scientific approach is expected to bring a new paradigm to the food and beverage pairing market.
Bluefrog provides innovative membership services through its offline-based lifestyle reward service 'SOSOK'. It has secured 180,000 domestic and 8,000 overseas merchants, and has agreements with Coupang Incheon Branch, Samsung Biologics, Incheon Tourism Organization, and 140 universities nationwide. In particular, it has secured 11 million Japanese subscribers through a collaboration with Japan's GiftPad, and is also offering memberships to overseas tourists through Asiana Airlines. As the global consumer market is rapidly reorganizing into rewards-based marketing, Bluefrog's cross-border membership service is expected to contribute to the revitalization of the domestic consumer market.
Datamond provides multi-agent AI marketing engagement solutions. It has acquired 33 million data through its 300,000-member Postmaster platform and has received a data valuation of KRW 1.6 billion. It is cooperating with Shinhan Futures Lab and IP Warehouse, and is working to connect with Shinhan Card's data platform Data Mart. In particular, it has a technology that replicates 1 million simulation environments to operate efficient AI models with fewer resources. As AI technology is rapidly spreading to the marketing field, Datamond's efficient AI operation technology is expected to play a key role in helping companies reduce marketing costs and maximize effectiveness.
AHES, the first DeepTech Tips company selected by the Jeonbuk Center for Creative and Innovative Economy, has developed a large 2.5 megawatt ultra-efficient alkaline water electrolysis stack for the hydrogen economy. It has achieved the world's highest efficiency of 4 kW per 1 Nm³ of hydrogen production and is close to signing a technology transfer contract worth KRW 20 billion with BHEL, an Indian state-owned company. It has signed a five-year supply contract with GH2 and is currently preparing to build a new 4,500-pyeong factory in Wanju. The company is aiming for an initial public offering (IPO) around 2027, based on the experience of founding Iljin Hysolus in 1999 and selling the company in 2014. At a time when the transition to a global hydrogen economy is accelerating, AHES' innovative water electrolysis technology is expected to be a game changer in the green energy market.
Selected as the winner of the 2nd J-curve Deployment Program, Dreamers is a company that develops data-collecting IoT agricultural machinery. It was selected as a subsidiary of Gunsan University's technology holding company and is characterized by its deep learning-based agricultural product sorting system. Unlike existing color sorters, the company has introduced a deep learning method to enable more accurate quality inspection, and has built a system that can be remotely monitored and controlled from a server through a network connection. The company is currently preparing to enter the overseas market in cooperation with Indian companies. As the digital transformation of agriculture is becoming an urgent issue, Dreamers' AI-based agricultural machinery is considered an innovative solution that can solve the labor shortage problem and improve the quality of agricultural products.
The roadshow was an interesting opportunity to see the strength of startups in Jeonbuk, and it was especially noteworthy that most of the participating companies have already entered overseas markets or are on the verge of signing concrete contracts. This shows the global competitiveness of Jeonbuk startups, which is not limited to the region.
With the recent freeze in the venture investment market, even promising startups are having difficulty raising funds, so this event was timely. Investors were able to meet proven startups in one place, and startups were able to showcase their technology and growth potential in person. If more of these quality matchmaking opportunities are organized across the region, the Korean startup ecosystem will become even stronger. Hopefully, Jeonbuk Creative Economy Innovation Center's initiative will spread to other regions.
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