Expanding the Market Pie: 'Frontier' Companies

Musinsa Proceeds with an Investment of 46 Billion Won

SK Invests 45 Billion Won in Companies Solving Social Issues

The role of frontiers in each industry is very important. Pioneering and expanding the market, these frontiers receive the most attention as representatives of their fields, along with the responsibility of being leading companies.

In the fashion industry, Musinsa is leading the growth of the brand market. In the ESG sector, SK is setting new standards with various investment support policies and programs for ethical companies. FrontOne is focusing on nurturing and supporting startups across the board.

#Musinsa Steps Up for a Healthy Fashion Ecosystem

As the largest online fashion platform in Korea, Musinsa operates various co-prosperity programs for emerging designers and small to medium fashion brands, based on its accumulated know-how. It supports brands in establishing themselves by offering consulting across branding, planning, marketing, production, finance, logistics, and CS.

Musinsa operates a financial support policy to solve the biggest concern of small brands: funding. It lends next season's production funds at zero interest to the brands on its platform, ensuring they can focus on product development and operations, and pays settlements early to facilitate smooth cash flow.

In addition, it actively helps to highlight the strengths of the brands on its platform and expand their touchpoints with consumers through promotional and content production. Musinsa is promoting brands through digital lookbooks, showcases, and presentations on Musinsa Magazine, Musinsa TV, and the Musinsa Store, and has also invested in establishing local subsidiaries and overseas showroom agencies for brands aiming for global expansion.

Moreover, it operates outdoor advertising in major areas such as Gangnam-daero, Dosan Park, and Hongik University Entrance to promote brands on its platform and collaborates with nine companies in celebrity and influencer marketing to sponsor brand products. Musinsa bears all these costs.

Musinsa plans to continue offering a variety of solutions for the growth of brands on its platform and to strengthen the bond of 'growing together', ensuring they can operate in a stable environment.

Besides, Musinsa is currently investing a total of 46 billion won in small brands and startups through its investment company specializing in fashion brands and startups, Musinsa Partners.

#SK, a Partner for 'Good Companies' Towards a Sustainable Future

Starting this year until 2023, SK is conducting a total of 45 billion won in impact investments targeting startups that innovatively solve social issues. It has also decided to expand business models that can help society, such as 'SIAT, Smart IT Advanced Training', an IT education and employment support program for young people with disabilities.

Last year, SK created more than 1 trillion won in social value and continues to push for the discovery of social enterprise investment and social value creation business models, alongside changes to its business portfolio based on ESG, and the advancement of its management system.

SK plans to evolve into a comprehensive digital transformation partner for customers and society by reorganizing its business portfolio into core areas based on ESG, such as advanced materials, bio, green, and digital, and leveraging its industry knowledge and technical capabilities in AI, blockchain, cloud, and data accumulated over many years.

In addition, it plans to leap forward as a global leading company in the same industry by specifically presenting policies, performance, and roadmaps for key ESG indicators applied with global ESG standards like MSCI (Morgan Stanley Capital International) and DJSI (Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes) and managing performance.

Furthermore, SK intends to continuously incorporate the results of ESG performance evaluations into the decision-making process for investments, integrating economic value analysis with ESG perspectives and enhancing the sustainability of its business portfolio through meticulous review.

#FrontOne, a Cradle for Startups

Opened in July last year, FrontOne is a startup incubation institution operated by the Banking Sector Youth Startup Foundation, D.Camp. Currently, 111 startups and institutions, totaling approximately 1,030 employees, are working there.

FrontOne operates a solid residency growth program that can practically help startups. 'Office hours' allow startups to meet mentors specialized in technology, law, HR, etc., to resolve concerns and correct business directions, which has been held a total of 80 times since FrontOne's opening, attracting 339 entrepreneurs with an average application competition rate of 5 to 1. Additionally, 'CEO Salon', which checks the growth capabilities of entrepreneurs with D.Camp's nurturing partner companies, and 'HR Salon', which acquires organizational management know-how and HR knowledge, have been held 39 times during the same period.

Among the companies based in FrontOne, 51 have secured a total of 43.6 billion won in follow-up investments. Notable companies include MoIN, a blockchain-based overseas remittance solution (5.3 billion won), Hi, a specialist in digital therapeutics development (2.1 billion won), Gloomi, an on-tact video conference solution (2.0 billion won), and Coptic, a custom 3D glasses service (2.0 billion won).

D.Camp has also directly invested 2.2 billion won in 15 companies based in FrontOne through its own demo day, D.DAY.