BIND wins D.Camp startup pitch race in April, co-sponsored by CJ

BIND Corp. was chosen by investors as the best of the best for its online fashion platform for middle-aged men during South Korea’s major startup pitch competition D.Day in April, jointly held by D.Camp and CJ Investment Inc. on Thursday.

BIND operates Athler, an online marketplace where visitors can buy clothes from various new and established fashion brands for men between 45 and 65 years old, according to the Korean startup accelerator D.Camp on Friday.

Founded in June 2022, the fledgling fashion e-commerce site mainly sells outdoor sports apparel and accessories, and its gross merchandise value from October last year to January this year increased more than 50% on average month over month.

The outlook for its business model is bright as the fashion market for middle-aged men is estimated at 8 trillion won ($6 billion) and yet remains widely untapped. The company operates both mobile and PC versions of Athler.

The runner-up of the demo day was Madeleine Memory Inc. of Relay, which sets up secondhand e-commerce platforms for fashion brands and offers total e-commerce solutions from logistics to marketplace operation and management.  

It has built secondhand e-shops for major fashion brands such as FnC by Kolon Industries Inc., NSR Riding and Foret Foret. The company aims to rake in 150 billion won in sales in 2027 by adding non-fashion items to its business portfolio.

Three more contenders took part in the April D.Day.

Fure Inc. presented its biotechnology that can improve the body absorption rate of calcium and vitamin D to 195 times from 34 times for higher bone density.

Sinor Inc. pitched Sinor, a mobile app designed to connect older people between 50 and 70 years old for dating and social activities.

CareerDay, founded in 2021, introduced career day, an app to match people with freelance or gig jobs related to their professional jobs. Its cumulative users stood at 11,014 as of March, with cumulative sales of 180 million won.

D.Camp is the Korean startup accelerator backed by the Banks Foundation for Young Entrepreneurs. It hosts a startup pitch competition D.Day every month.

In April, it joined hands with CJ Corp. and CJ Investment to hold D.Day X CJ Lifestyle to seek early stage startups in the food, biotechnology, logistics, retail, entertainment and media sectors.

The winner of this month’s D.Day will enjoy various rewards, such as office space inside FRONT1, a startup center managed by D.Camp, for up to one year and a chance to win up to 300 million won investment and follow-up investments from venture capitalists including CJ Investment, as well as opportunities to build networks and collaborate with CJ Group companies on business partnerships.

Write to Sookyung Seo at skseo@hankyung.com

Jennifer Nicholson-Breen edited this article.