Link

Content

BJY Inc. (CEO: Byungjo Yoo), a company developing eco-friendly functional cosmetic ingredients through its enzymatic fermentation platform technology as alternatives to ingredients previously sourced entirely from overseas manufacturers, secured KRW 550 million in seed funding on December 23 from investors including Company A, Korea Science & Technology Holdings, and ROWE Partners.

BJY Inc. is a manufacturer specializing in the production of functional peptides for anti-wrinkle and hair-loss care, as well as sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P), through an eco-friendly yeast fermentation process based on yeast fermentation production and metabolic engineering technologies. These ingredients have conventionally been produced through chemical synthesis or animal-derived extraction.

The company has developed a large-scale fermentation process with a capacity of up to 5 tons, along with cost-effective, high-purity separation and purification technologies. With strong price competitiveness and an eco-friendly value proposition, BJY Inc. is well positioned to meet the needs of B2B customers. The company has also secured exclusive licenses for relevant patents and is preparing improvements to its technologies as well as subsequent patent applications.

CEO Byungjo Yoo, formerly a principal researcher at the Korea Institute of Industrial Technology (KITECH), is an expert in microbial metabolic engineering and fermentation. He earned his Ph.D. from the Department of Biological Sciences at KAIST, where his research focused on microbial genome engineering. He later served as head of a diagnostic kit manufacturing research center at MD Science Co., Ltd. and conducted R&D and commercialization projects involving biomass-based biofuels and biochemical materials at the Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology.

During his ten years at KITECH, Yoo established a network with cosmetic industry customers, securing B2B sales channels in Korea and overseas. With commercialization in mind, he advanced the development of cosmetic and pharmaceutical ingredients and founded BJY Inc. on August 4, 2022.

Through this seed investment, BJY Inc. plans to conduct further R&D to commercialize its technologies and enhance product competitiveness, recruit specialized personnel, and establish its own small-scale production facilities. The company aims to commercialize its developed ingredients in phases and generate revenue from these products.

Byunghyun Cho, CEO of Company A, commented:

“One of the key reasons we decided to invest in BJY during the challenging investment environment of 2022 was the rapid growth of the well-aging market, including anti-wrinkle and hair-loss care, as society continues to age. We saw significant potential in BJY’s approach to addressing these needs through eco-friendly ingredients and ultimately expanding into the pharmaceutical ingredients market.”

He added that Company A would support BJY Inc. in pursuing TIPS selection, Pre-Series A investment, and global market expansion, including reassessing consumer trends in overseas markets and establishing market-specific strategies for international growth.

BJY Inc. is currently participating in the Science Belt Accelerating Program operated by the Korea Innovation Foundation (INNOPOLIS Foundation) and is receiving phased support for its growth and development.