Baemin founder strikes out for new trophy platform

Kim Bong-jin, a former chairman and CEO of Woowa Brothers Corp., operator of South Korea’s No. 1 food delivery app Baedal Minjok — Baemin for short — is gearing up for a new entrepreneurial push just one year after leaving the company he founded.

Kim's newly founded Grande Clip announced on Friday it acquired a 50% stake in Stayfolio, a Korea-based property rental platform, becoming the latter’s largest shareholder with management right.  

Stayfolio focuses on unconventional accommodations for premium stays at pensions, private homes and guesthouses.

This is Kim's first platform startup acquisition since leaving Woowa last summer. He resigned as the company’s chairman of the board in July and as CEO earlier, in February.

Under a non-compete agreement, Kim was barred from working for a platform company for one year following his departure from Woowa. With the agreed period over, Kim is now free to compete with its former employer.

As Kim is touted as a trailblazer after having transformed the local dining sector with the launch of the Baemin app in 2010, his latest move heightens expectations about his next entrepreneurial move.  

OLD BOYS RETURN

Baemin’s founding members have regrouped to lend Kim a hand in rebuilding a new startup empire.

Chang In-sung, formerly Woowa's marketing director, will lead Stayfolio. Another ex-Baemin executive, Go Dong-hee, has also joined Stayfolio.

The online accommodation platform offers some 500 curated premium lodgings, including its self-managed 'fine stays.' Its member lodging are concentrated in Korea but are also located in Japan, Taiwan and Southeast Asia.

Kim joined in Stayfolio’s early-stage funding round as a private investor in 2015 and also chipped in through a venture fund he formed.

Kim is expected to reboot Stayfolio, whose growth has stagnated in recent years. Revenue dropped 19.6% to 3.7 billion won ($2.7 million) in 2023 from 4.6 billion won a year earlier.

INNOVATION CONTINUES

Earlier this year, Kim heralded his return with the launch of a new business venture called Newmix Coffee, a café selling Korean-style sweet white instant coffee. It was followed by the kickoff of wearable paper toy brand whatawonder and chair magazine Magazine C.

Behind these new ventures is a startup called Grande Clip, which Kim founded last September. Many ex-Woowa employees have joined the company in hopes of repeating the success of their former employer.

Aside from Grande Clip, Kim is also said to have recently taken over 45% of AMCR, operator of golf apparel brand AMAZINGCRE, and invested in Banlife, operator of the pet-friendly accommodation and service search app late last year.

Kim set up Woowa Brothers, which runs Korea’s No. 1 food delivery app Baemin, in 2010. Nine years later, the app was sold to Germany’s Delivery Hero SE for $4.3 billion after climbing the top of the Korean food app market.

Kim stayed on Woowa's board of directors even after the sale but left the company in 2023.

Prior to Woowa, Kim worked as a web designer at companies like Emotion Global, Neowiz, and NHN (now Naver Corp.).

Write to Eun-Yi Ko at koko@hankyung.com
Sookyung Seo edited this article.