– Separated into Wadiz Co., Ltd. (non-financial) and Wadiz Finance-Wadiz Partners (financial)
– Aimed at a D2C (Direct to Customer) platform where startups and small and medium-sized businesses meet directly with consumers
– Next year’s 10th anniversary, we will move beyond ‘providing opportunities’ to a ‘growth support’ platform for various makers!
Wadiz has completed the separation of financial and non-financial businesses announced earlier this year and is accelerating the advancement of business in each sector.
Wadiz (CEO Shin Hye-seong) announced on the 26th that through corporate separation, the parent company, Wadiz Co., Ltd., was in charge of non-financial business, and its subsidiaries, Wadiz Finance (tentative name) and Wadiz Partners, were in charge of financial business.
Starting with reward-type crowdfunding in 2013, Wadiz expanded its scope to Korea’s first securities-type crowdfunding in 2016, and has now established itself as the number one crowdfunding platform company with a cumulative brokerage amount of KRW 540 billion, with its first funding in 2020. We have been pursuing continuous improvements and changes to create standards for the crowdfunding industry, such as implementing a refund system and voluntarily revising terms and conditions to protect supporters in 2021.
This separation of the corporation clearly divides the areas and roles of financial and non-financial businesses, while also laying the foundation for strengthening responsible brokerage and advancing each professional service. Wadiz aims to develop into a D2C (Direct to Customer) platform where startups and small and medium-sized businesses can meet consumers directly based on financial and non-financial methods.
The main direction of Wadiz Co., Ltd., which provides non-financial services, is ‘expansion into online/offline sales channels’ beyond online funding services. The main businesses are ▲’reward-type crowdfunding’ and offline experience shop ▲’Space Wadiz’, as well as the ‘character IP business’ that connects IP brand owners and makers ▲’store business’ to be introduced in the second half of the year. The purpose is to expand the venues where services can be continuously introduced and to strengthen support for growth.
Among these, the character IP business, a new business, is a comprehensive IP matching program that connects startups and brands to develop licensed products, verify marketability through funding, and then support entry into the global IP market. It is a comprehensive IP matching program that supports major games and global representative IPs by the end of the year. It is scheduled to be launched in the form of a monthly funding contest. Makers using Wadiz will be provided with the opportunity to discover new customer bases with the same products.
The store service is a channel that can continuously distribute the products of makers that have successfully received funding, and plans to provide a stepping stone for startups and small and medium-sized businesses that have begun to attract attention through Wadiz to grow quickly.
On the other hand, the two subsidiaries, Wadiz Finance and Wadiz Partners, which will be in charge of financial services, will solidify their role as a ‘startup financial support platform’. Wadiz Finance is preparing a new service based on ▲’investment-type crowdfunding’ and an online IR platform dedicated to startups ▲’startup search’, and Wadiz Partners ▲provides services to manufacturing startups that have grown through the Wadiz funding service. We will support maker scale-up through ‘direct investment’ in Korea. Through this separation, Wadiz will be able to further accelerate the KOSDAQ listing process, which is being promoted for the second half of next year. After attracting Series C investment worth 30 billion won in 2019, an additional investment worth 10 billion won was attracted from KDB Korea Development Bank at the end of last year, bringing the total accumulated investment amount to 57.5 billion won.
Wadiz CEO Shin Hye-seong said, “Since our founding in 2012, we have developed into a platform that provides opportunities for various makers in need of initial development funds and customer attraction to realize their ideas and produce products.” He added, “Ahead of our 10th anniversary, we are launching crowdfunding. “We are ready to evolve into a ‘growth support’ platform for makers’ next steps.”
Source: Pangyo Techno Valley Official Newsroom
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