Bunker Kids Raises 2 Billion KRW Series A Investment from Kakao Ventures and Others

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwak Minjae] Bunker Kids, which operates the healthy meal recommendation delivery service ‘MyShipDan,’ announced on the 13th that it has secured 2 billion KRW in Series A funding from Kakao Ventures, Spring Camp, and Rising S Ventures.

Bunker Kids is a startup that provides optimized solutions for achieving personal health goals using data and algorithms. It helps enable personalized dietary management by utilizing AI algorithms that create the most effective and sustainable meal plans for individuals. It supports people who recognize the need for diet management but struggle with systematic control or give up after repeating similar diets to achieve their goals through hyper-personalized healthy meal plans.

MyShipDan, operated by Bunker Kids, diagnoses recommended nutrients when users input physical activity information such as height, weight, and exercise amount, along with health goals. An AI nutritionist then recommends a customized nutrition-based meal plan within one minute. The hyper-personalized meal plan can be delivered as is, allowing users to maintain healthy eating without hassle. Meals are delivered twice a week at dawn, with various branded foods ensuring no repetition in each meal.

If customers are dissatisfied with the meal plan, they can use the ‘Change’ feature to swap foods with similar nutrients or exclude certain items from their order. Customer preference evaluations are reflected in the AI algorithm, making the meal plans more refined. Satisfaction with the hyper-personalized meal plans is also high. Since the open beta service launch in July, monthly sales have reached 100 million KRW, and the cumulative number of subscribers has surpassed 50,000. The repurchase rate within two weeks after purchase exceeds 50%.

Bunker Kids was founded in 2019 and is composed mainly of members who have experienced six pivots and small-scale exits. The team has accumulated growth and failure experiences through numerous trials and errors. Their fast execution and cohesion, suitable for the meal management market that requires reflecting diverse customer preferences and consistent management, are considered the team’s strengths.

Going forward, Bunker Kids plans to strengthen the deep learning technology of its customized meal recommendation algorithm and expand its target audience to customers with various health goals. They intend to utilize not only in-app behavior and purchase data but also health change data after intake in their deep learning algorithms. The goal is to enhance performance so that meal recommendations become more sophisticated the more the app is used. Since being selected for the TIPS program last year, they have been researching AI models for hyper-personalized nutrition prescriptions in collaboration with the Nutrition Epidemiology Laboratory at Chung-Ang University.

Jang Seungryong, Director at Kakao Ventures, said, “We expect strong market demand for a service that recommends and delivers hyper-personalized meal plans tailored to taste and nutrition through algorithms. We decided to invest after seeing Bunker Kids’ lean problem-solving approach, data-driven decision-making, and execution capability to solve any given problem.”

Jung Seungwan, CEO of Bunker Kids, stated, “Our ultimate goal at Bunker Kids is to make everyone pursuing health ‘free from worries about what to eat’ by utilizing data and algorithms. We plan to expand beyond the diet market into muscle growth markets and disease prevention and management markets such as hypertension and diabetes.”

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