Startups race for top talent to fill CTO positions

Just a few years back, fashion startups in South Korea rarely saw the need for a Chief Technology Officer (CTO). 

The same was true for the so-called life tech field, which includes the beauty and food industries. 

These days, virtually all startups are vying to recruit the best CTOs – from content creators to logistics providers. 

Education technology startup Jaranda recently hired Kim Taek-joo as its technology head, who previously worked as the senior software engineering manager at LINE Plus Corp. and as a software developer at Amazon’s Seattle office. 

Jacaranda raised 3.1 billion won ($2.6 million) last month from its Series B round of funding. 

“I aim to help Jaranda contribute to children’s educational growth through digital transformation,” said Kim.

Content startup Ridi Corp. hired former Google software engineer Cho Sung-jin as its CTO last month. 

The company, often referred to as South Korea's Kindle, has received funding of 120 billion won ($100 million) from Singapore's GIC and three domestic institutional investors at a valuation of 1.6 trillion won ($1.3 billion) in February. 

Cho co-founded AI startup Skelterlabs before joining Ridi.

The new recruit said he will work to make the platform more user-friendly and focus on advancing the necessary technology.

Separately, telemedicine platform Dr. Now recently hired former Coupang and Kakao employee Lee Hyeon-seok as its CTO. 

Dr. Now raised 10 billion won in Series A during the latter half of last year. 

Lee was in charge of the order and delivery architecture at Coupang and Kakao Style. 

UNICORNS and CTOs

Unicorns, or private companies with a valuation over $1 billion, are also looking to CTOs to boost their value. 

Fashion startup Musinsa hired the former CTO of Woowa Brothers’ Vietnam office Cho Yun in March. Cho previously worked at Daum and NCSoft. 

Kurly also hired a CTO from Kakao.

Experts say a startup’s technological prowess has become the core deciding factir of its competitiveness. 

According to a 2021 CEO Study published by the IBM Institute for Business Value, some 3,000 heads of companies identified CTOs and CIOs as among the top three most important C-level positions.

Write to Joo Wan Kim at kjwan@hankyung.com

Jee Abbey Lee edited this article.