Future Food Opportunities Fully Secured... Nongshim Increases Investment in Startups

Additional Investment in 3 Startups Following 2018
Diverse Sectors Including Fashion, Food, and Living... Combined with Nongshim Infrastructure
Strong Performance Behind the Move... Operating Profit Rising Despite COVID-19

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Saeng-hye] Nongshim is focusing on discovering future food sources. Following its investment in three external startups for the first time in the food industry in 2018, it recently decided to invest a total of about 300 million KRW in three more startups. Nongshim continues to invest to find new business opportunities by combining the capabilities of startups with Nongshim's research and development (R&D) infrastructure.

On the 5th, Nongshim announced that through the second startup investment recruitment, it decided to invest about 100 million KRW each in three startups: Dalcha Company, Passengers, and Jinwon Onwon.

Lifestyle commerce platform 'Vivot'

Dalcha Company is a food tech startup based on tea. After about two years of research and development (R&D), it has been releasing various products since the second half of last year, modernly reinterpreting Korea's tea culture. Passengers is an online commerce startup operating the lifestyle commerce platform 'Vivot'. Vivot curates products based on three categories?'Veganism, Eco-friendliness, and Social Value'?which are consumption trends among the millennial generation, across fashion, food, living, and beauty sectors.

Nongshim 'Lifeal Derma Collagen'

Jinwon Onwon is a healthcare startup that launched services such as 'My Second Brain,' which balances the diversity of gut microbiota, and 'My Eat,' which recommends personalized lunchboxes and supplements based on gut microbiome tests targeting women in their 20s and 30s. Nongshim has continuously shown interest in the healthcare field, having developed high-functional health food materials since the early 1990s and recently launching the health functional food 'Lifil Derma Collagen.'

In 2018, Nongshim also invested in OpenUp (AI commercial area analysis), Snackpo (snack subscription service), and Yoriro (3D food printer technology). Currently, it is forming a startup task force (TF) team through internal recruitment to focus on discovering new food sources.

This investment foundation is supported by Nongshim's solid domestic and international performance. Although the overall food market shrank due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which spread widely this year, Nongshim's domestic and overseas ramen sales significantly increased, and the effect of 'Jjapaguri' (Jjapaghetti + Neoguri), featured in the movie Parasite, greatly improved its performance. First-quarter sales increased by 16.8% year-on-year, and operating profit rose by 101.1%. Second-quarter sales are also expected to increase by 14.2%, with operating profit rising by 392.4% compared to the previous year.

Due to the rising popularity of 'Shin Ramyun Black,' Nongshim recorded its highest-ever performance in the United States in the first half of this year. Nongshim announced that its U.S. subsidiary's sales in the first half of this year reached an estimated 164 million USD, a 35% increase from the previous year. Sales of Shin Ramyun Black in the first half reached 13.5 million USD, growing 49% year-on-year.

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