Habit Factory Turns to Operating Profit in Q1... "Will Focus on Expanding Market Share"

Fintech company Habit Factory achieved a turnaround to profitability in the first quarter of this year.

On May 12, Habit Factory announced that it recorded an operating profit of 716.54 million won in the first quarter of this year from its domestic business. Consolidated revenue for the same period was 9.42637 billion won, up 86.8% year-on-year. The number of new member registrations and insurance contracts increased by 43.3% and 82.3%, respectively, compared to the first quarter of last year.

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As of the end of the first quarter, initial insurance premiums reached 320 million won, marking the highest performance ever. This represents a 64% increase compared to the same period last year. Initial insurance premiums refer to the first payment made by a consumer to an insurance company after signing an insurance contract.

The company’s overseas business is also showing growth. Habit Factory’s US subsidiary executed loans totaling 17.1 billion won in the first quarter, based on an exchange rate of 1,450 won per dollar. Revenue from Loaning.ai, a bank specializing in mortgage loans, rose by 246.5% year-on-year.

The expansion of the insurance planner network, the application of artificial intelligence (AI) technology, and brand campaigns served as growth drivers. Since the second half of last year, the company has engaged in aggressive recruitment, which has increased the number of customers who can be assisted via KakaoTalk consultations.

Improvements in the consultation process through AI also contributed to operational efficiency. The company developed and utilized tools such as 'Signal AI Helper', which provides necessary materials during consultations, and 'Summary Agent', which informs returning customers of coverage, underwriting results, and important points to note based on past conversation records.

Habit Factory also developed an AI tool called 'Haebot', which poses questions to planners to prompt thoughtful responses, and used it to train new insurance planners. By configuring more than 100 types of customer profiles based on age, gender, personality, and illnesses, the company significantly reduced training costs and time.

Habit Factory increased interest in insurance by collaborating with influencers favored by its core demographic, people in their 20s and 30s, and running various brand campaigns. The company also attracted attention with its recent 'Family Insurance Checkup' feature, which allows users to manage the insurance policies of family members together. The number of consultations initiated via the button within this feature increased by 9.2 percentage points compared to the previous month.

Habit Factory plans to further enhance its pension and household account book services using AI technology to increase its loyal customer base. The company also aims to diversify its business by expanding into the business-to-business (B2B) sector with solutions such as application programming interfaces (APIs) and software as a service (SaaS).

Jung Yunho, co-CEO of Habit Factory, stated, "Turning a profit through rapid growth will serve as a foundation for new challenges ahead," adding, "We will devote our full efforts to expanding our market share by proving both profitability and technological capabilities."

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