Shoe Tech Company KRISTIN COMPANY Raises $5.3 million (KRW 7 Billion) in Series A Funding

Minbong Lee, CEO of KRISTIN Company

KRISTIN Company, a shoe tech company, has closed a $5.3 million (KRW 7 billion) Series A round of funding. This brings the company’s cumulative investment to approximately KRW 14 billion.

New shareholders including Korea Development Bank, TKG Ventures and BNK Venture Capital, and existing shareholders including Aju IB Investment and Gyeongnam Venture Investment participated in the round. The investors recognised KRISTIN Company’s rapid growth and future growth potential based on its technology and innovation.

Founded in 2019, KRISTIN Company is a shoe technology company that combines big data and AI technology in the shoe manufacturing ecosystem to build and advance a digital twin technology manufacturing infrastructure system, and operates SINPLE, a shoe manufacturing solution that has achieved digital transformation of the existing analogue shoe manufacturing process, and KRISTIN, a premium shoe brand.

In particular, SINPLE, a shoe manufacturing solution, improves the complex process of the existing shoe industry and the problems of the traditional offline production method that relies on agencies, and promotes the digitalisation of the shoe manufacturing industry by automatically analysing overseas shoe trends through artificial intelligence (AI) and suggesting designs for each season. KRISTIN Company, which designs and produces new products quickly and at once, and shortens the shoe manufacturing process, is leading the trend of MZ generation and cooperates with more than 30 major domestic and overseas fashion brands.

An official from the Korea Development Bank, which led the investment, said, “KRISTIN Company is transforming the shoe manufacturing industry from a small-variety, high-volume production system to an online-based, multi-variety, low-volume production system through digitalisation, eliminating the limitations of physical distance, and is leading the way in attracting global brands to Korea.” “In particular, Busan has been a representative foorwear industry region in Korea, so we expect that the symbolism of this investment will be added to lead the development of the region,” he said.

Minbong Lee, CEO of KRISTIN Company, said: “We are pleased that the value and growth potential of KRISTIN Company has been recognised by various investors despite the difficult times. “Based on this investment, as the only company in Korea dedicated to the footwear industry, we will responsibly lead the transformation of the industry and successfully enter the global market.”

KRISTIN Company has previously received successive pre-A series investments from Series Ventures, a specialised accelerator for the Ulsan Gyeongnam region, Busan United Holdings (BUH) and others, with continued investment from Naver and Aju IB Investment, and was selected for the Private Investment-led Technology Startup Support (TIPS) programme by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups in 2021.