In brief: South Korea’s ‘first startup unicorn’ on the brink of collapse

• Yello Mobile, one of South Korea’s first official unicorn startups and once regarded as the hottest “it” enterprise worth more than US$4 billion at its peak, has been pushed to a critical juncture.
• Starting out as a marketing company in 2012 with a capital of 50 million won (US$44,700), it showed exponential growth from the beginning by collecting startups.
• While revenue soared from 68 million won (US$60,463) in 2012 to 527 billion won (US$468 million) in 2017, the company posted operating losses for consecutive years. It turned to the black in 2017, with operating profits standing at a mere 18.9 billion won (US$16.8 million).
• However, greed and incompetence have taken their toll, according to industry watchers. The biggest risk Yello Mobile is running is its chief executive Lee Sang-hyuk, who has come under fire for borrowing excessively from partners and affiliates and not paying them back, in addition to multiple lawsuits.

Source: The Investor

Currency converted from Korean won. Rate: US$1 = KRW 1,124.65