'Pre-Unicorn' Food-Related Startups... Will They Grow Wings and Become 'Real Unicorns'?

Jeongyuggak, Armored Fresh Selected as Prospective Unicorns
200 Billion KRW Special Guarantee from Korea Technology Finance Corporation
"Will Use as an Opportunity for Business Growth and Leap"

[Asia Economy Reporter Song Seung-yoon] Food-related startups are expected to take flight in growth as they are consecutively selected as targets for the government's special guarantee support project.

According to the industry on the 30th, five companies related to agricultural, livestock, and fishery products and food?Jeongyukgak, Armed Fresh, The Pirates, Gluup, and Tridge?were selected as targets for the preliminary unicorn special guarantee by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups. Jeongyukgak and Gluup belong to the ICT sector, The Pirates and Tridge are platforms, and Armed Fresh is in the manufacturing sector.

Earlier, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced that it selected 20 companies, including these firms, as 'preliminary unicorns' and will support them with special guarantees. The preliminary unicorn special guarantee is a system where the Korea Technology Finance Corporation provides up to 20 billion KRW in special guarantees to promising unicorn companies recognized for innovation and growth, among those that have proven their market potential through investment attraction.

Jeongyukgak is a D2C (Direct to Consumer) food tech startup specializing in fresh meat distribution. In the selection process for this special guarantee, Jeongyukgak was highly recognized for having a solid value chain from production and distribution to logistics based on IT capabilities. Taking this selection as an opportunity, the company plans to focus on recruiting diverse specialized personnel in each sector to match its growth trajectory. Jeongyukgak recently ventured into acquiring 'Chorokmaeul,' an eco-friendly organic food brand subsidiary of Daesang Holdings. Once the acquisition is finalized, it plans to strengthen its own IT logistics and distribution network. It is also preparing to launch an agricultural and fishery product direct transaction platform (DaaS) and IoT cooking devices.

Armed Fresh, a vegan cheese specialist company, was highly evaluated for its technology to develop the world's first fermented vegan plant-based cheese using almond milk as a raw material. Taking this selection as an opportunity, it plans to focus on technology research and product development for its planned global market entry in the second half of this year.

The Pirates, famous for the seafood market information service 'In-eo Gyoju Pirate Crew,' Gluup, an online and offline brand commerce company that introduced the home meal replacement (HMR) brand 'Jinji' and health functional food brand 'MediLog,' and Tridge, an agricultural product trade startup, are also expected to continue their growth. These companies are also expected to use this preliminary unicorn special guarantee as a stepping stone to pioneer markets and foster growth in their respective fields.

An industry insider said, "From a startup perspective, the government's provision of guarantee support tailored to the growth stage is a significant help in terms of business management," adding, "As other unicorn companies have done before, this will serve as a foundation for growing into a unicorn company."

Meanwhile, the companies selected as preliminary unicorns this year have an average business duration of 7.4 years. Their average sales amount to 17.1 billion KRW, and the average number of employees is about 100. The average investment attracted is 35.4 billion KRW, and the average corporate value is 195 billion KRW.

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