The Man Running a '1.5 Trillion Won' Startup... "The Collapse of Barriers, Opportunity Has Come"

Interview with Ryu Jung-hee, CEO of FuturePlay
"COVID-19 Crisis is an Opportunity for Startups... Will Showcase Through COMEUP 2020"

Ryu Jung-hee, CEO of FuturePlay, explained that a company with a never-before-seen new item, a Zero to One with no competitors, is the charm of startups and the investment criterion he adheres to as a VC. Photo by Yoon Jin-geun PD

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Heeyoon] “Surprisingly, the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) will be an opportunity for startups to demonstrate overcoming challenges rather than a crisis.”

Ryu Joonghee, CEO of the accelerator FuturePlay, interprets the current major transformation brought by COVID-19 not as a crisis but as an opportunity for startups. Having transformed from a researcher to an entrepreneur, then a corporate executive, and finally a venture capitalist, his journey has led him to invest in promising startups and act as a bridge connecting them with large corporations. As of this month, FuturePlay has built a portfolio of 122 companies, with a cumulative enterprise value of 1.5 trillion KRW.

Ryu’s experience of successfully exiting when Intel acquired his facial recognition software company Olaworks in 2012 continues to influence his role as an accelerator through FuturePlay and as a solid operational supporter (program planning division head) of the government-led startup festival ‘ComeUp 2020.’ He predicts that despite concerns about the downsizing of ComeUp 2020 due to COVID-19, the event will shine even more online as a stepping stone into the post-pandemic era.

On May 20th, attendees posed at the launch ceremony of the ComeUp Organizing Committee in preparation for 'ComeUp 2020'. From the left, Joonhee Ryu, CEO of FuturePlay; Seul-ah Kim, CEO of Kurly; Youngsun Park, Minister of SMEs and Startups; and Jeonghoon Cha, Director of the Venture Innovation Office at the Ministry of SMEs and Startups. Photo by Yonhap News Agency

Ryu explained, “Last year, the timing of ComeUp overlapped with the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, making it difficult to invite speakers from North America, but this year, we can invite a wider range of global speakers online, allowing us to plan even richer content.” Offline conferences, where many people gather to create diverse values, have been completely blocked for months due to COVID-19. When major global startup festivals like Spain’s MWC and Finland’s Slush were abruptly canceled, attention turned to ComeUp 2020 (hosted by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, Korea’s largest global startup event), which declared a hybrid online-offline event.

Ryu said he wants to showcase startup-style crisis overcoming through ComeUp 2020. He stated, “Startups, which quickly adapt to changes, are sensitive to environmental shifts and are actually overcoming the COVID-19 crisis well,” adding, “I hope other industries can learn startup-style crisis management?solving new problems with new methods?through ComeUp 2020.”

Typically, startup events have focused on company introductions, mainly pitching. Ryu suggests overcoming the limitations of traditional pitching in non-face-to-face events through video. “Along with the CEO’s pitch introducing the startup, we plan to shoot videos that show their portfolio in a three-dimensional way, such as filming delivery robots actually in use for mobility startups,” he said. “We want to provide benefits so that startups can use these videos for promotion after ComeUp ends and find investment opportunities at other non-face-to-face events,” Ryu emphasized.

Ryu recently pointed out the breakdown of barriers as a trend in the startup ecosystem. He explained that startups bridging online commerce’s entry into offline stores, along with the generalization of artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, and blockchain, have increased. He analyzed, “All these changes have been amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the speed at which boundaries between sectors are blurring is also accelerating.”

FuturePlay company information. Illustration by designer Jin-Kyung Lee.

FuturePlay has also diversified its investment portfolio in line with this trend. In particular, it has focused on AI that maximizes the value of offline spaces. Ryu stated, “Startups analyzing commercial district information through fragmented store-by-store sales reviews like ‘OpenUp,’ and those datafying consumer movement patterns and shelf responses through CCTV video analysis like ‘MayAI,’ which combine online and offline to analyze space value, will change the future market environment.”

Ryu, who pays attention to people who can create their own motivation and companies, expressed some regret about the recent trend of stable copycat startups but also conveyed expectations for new movements. He said, “I am fascinated by startups with originality based on voluntary execution and autonomous desire,” adding, “I am attracted to companies with items humanity has never tried before, and since VC itself is a venture, I try to invest in zero-to-one, original companies without competitors.”

Regarding government support for startups, Ryu explained, “The government’s role is to fill gaps that the private sector cannot cover,” and added, “Along with startup support through TIPS, ComeUp 2020 will also establish itself as an event demonstrating the government’s role in supporting the innovation ecosystem.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.