The application has quickly grown to become a service with the most number of listings and a service that closed the most number of rent deals in Korea. About 30,000 studios for rent are updated on a daily basis and for over 100,000 times a month on average inquiries for a vacant studio have been made through Jik-Bang. (image: Channel Breeze)
SEOUL, Aug. 28 (Korea Bizwire) — Channel Breeze, the service provider of an app “Jik-Bang” — an application that provides information on studios or “one-rooms” for rent — has announced on August 26 that they have been funded 3 billion won (about US$2.9 million) from a U.S. venture capital firm, Altos Ventures.
Channel Breeze has recently attracted 3-billion-won investment from Korean investors just two month ago, in addition to another 3 billion won before that. The recent funding from Altos means that the Korean startup has been funded 9 billion won in total.
The CEO of Altos Venture Han J. Kim said, “Channel Breeze has been already funded at the time, but we really have seen the potential in them, so we persuaded them to work with us.”
The application provided by the venture, Jik-Bang, is a service that introduces vacant studios or “one-rooms” as Koreans call them, currently available for rent. With the application, users can readily search for a vacant studio by rent price range or location without having to make in-person trips to real estate offices. The application has quickly grown to become a service with the most number of listings and a service that closed the most number of rent deals in Korea. About 30,000 studios for rent are updated on a daily basis and for over 100,000 times a month on average inquiries for a vacant studio have been made through Jik-Bang.
Ahn Seong-woo, the CEO of Channel Breeze said, “With the funding from Altos, we plan to secure over 5 million users by the end of the year and become a flagship service for youths in their 20s and 30s who lead single household life.”
By J. H. Kim (jhkim@koreabizwire.com)
