KB Financial Selects 23 Startups 'KB Starters' to Lead Digital Financial Innovation

Selected 23 Companies in 16 Fields Including AI, Data, Sharing Economy, Mobility, Crowdfunding, Environment, and Energy
Supporting Scale-Up Through Partnerships with KB Financial Group Affiliates and Investment Attraction Assistance

[Asia Economy Reporter Song Hwajeong] KB Financial Group announced on the 27th that it has finally selected a total of 23 companies as the second half of 2022 'KB Starters,' which received excellent evaluations in terms of business model differentiation, technological capabilities, feasibility of collaboration ideas, and future growth potential.

In July, KB Financial pre-recruited startups wishing to participate in the KB Starters program and selected 23 companies through in-depth and fair evaluations by executives of KB Financial Group affiliates. The companies selected as KB Starters will receive investment review benefits from KB Investment and also gain opportunities for recommendation to the 'TIPS' program, a startup support project by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups.

The 23 startups selected as KB Starters this time are innovative companies with differentiated business models and technological capabilities in various fields such as finance-related AI and data, sharing economy, mobility, crowdfunding, proptech, healthcare, environment and energy (ESG), leisure, and compliance.

Codebox, which operates the startup securities management platform 'ZUZU,' provides solutions supporting startups' stock changes and shareholder management tasks such as shareholder registers, stock option management, general meetings of shareholders, and board of directors affairs, and is expected to handle overall back-office tasks for startups in the future.

Pureunmangaji, which operates the self-exploration platform 'Pumang,' is a startup that collects various human data through psychological tests. Since launching the service in December 2020, Pumang has provided over 130 psychological test contents and plans to develop various financial services with KB Financial through personality data-based hyper-personalized marketing, insurance premium calculation, and customized product recommendations.

Sixty Hertz is an environment and energy (ESG) related startup that produces virtual power plant operation software based on power generation forecasting technology. It plans to collaborate to achieve KB Financial's ESG management goal, 'KB Green Wave 2030,' as KB Financial became the first domestic financial company to join the global renewable energy campaign RE100.

A KB Financial official said, "Including the 23 companies selected this time, KB Financial has selected a total of 201 startups as KB Starters," adding, "We will actively support these startups to grow into next-generation unicorn companies and promote collaboration in various fields for digital financial innovation together with KB Starters."

KB Starters is the first startup nurturing program in the financial sector operated by KB Financial since 2015. Every year, innovative startups are selected in the first and second halves, and various support programs are operated according to growth stages. Selected startups receive various scale-up programs by growth stage, including ▲collaboration with KB Financial affiliates ▲internal and external expert management consulting ▲investment attraction ▲global expansion ▲recruitment support, and can move into a 120-pyeong startup-exclusive space located in Gwanak-gu, Seoul.

KB Financial plans to hold a 'Pitch Day' event at the end of October, where 1:1 on-site meetings between KB Starters and KB affiliates and corporate presentations (IR) for investment attraction will be held simultaneously.

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