Input 2021.02.11 12:03 | Revision 2021.02.11 16:49
Co-founded HyperConnect in 2014… Sold the entire stake for 2 trillion won after 8 years of establishment
HyperConnect’Azar’ Web RTC is’popular’ in a country with poor communication environment
Employee stock options up to 340 times the jackpot… Even early investors have a 13-fold increase in stock value
HyperConnect, a startup that operates a global video messenger’Azar’, will be sold for 2 trillion won to Match Group, an operator of the dating app’Tinder’ and a NASDAQ listed company. HyperConnect is a startup co-founded in 2014 by CEO Ahn Sang-il, former chairman of the Seoul National University Startup Club, and achieved a massive M&A (merger and acquisition) after 8 years of establishment.
Match Group is a company that services 40 social apps, including a dating app called’Tinder’, with a market capitalization of 47 trillion won. It has a high market share in North America, Europe, and Japan.
Sangil Ahn, founder and CEO of HyperConnect, was born in 1981 and graduated from Seoul National University Department of Materials Science and Engineering. It is known that he had dreamed of starting a business since his first year in college. It is said that joining the Seoul National University Student Venture Network, an on-campus venture club and meeting successful seniors, served as a driving force for entrepreneurship. He even sold kimbap to finance college tuition and living expenses.
Ahn’s first founding was in 2002. As a company dealing with information technology (IT) consulting, I had to taste the bitter taste of failure after seeing losses from investments made in IT solution companies at the time. He tried to start a business again in 2007. This time, it was an Internet search business called Levi Search. Levisearch has put in the lead a technology called’reliability estimation algorithm’, which is a technology that collects individual reputations, minimizes deviations, and displays them in numerical terms. The system of Levisearch was used for the entire system of Seoul National University, and a company was established in San Francisco, USA, and plans to start commercial service in the US first. Investment also continued.
However, the 2008 global financial crisis hit the company. At the time of CEO Ahn, he confessed all his assets to pay the last salary to about 30 employees and settled the company’s outstanding payments. There was also 800 million won in debt. Afterwards, he aimed for opportunities by running online community stores and photo studios.
Since then, CEO Ahn founded HyperConnect in 2014 with CTO Jung Kang-sik from the Department of Computer Engineering at Seoul National University and Chief Strategy Officer Yong Hyun-taek (CSO) from Computer Engineering at Pohang University.
The video messenger’Azar’ is the main service HyperConnect is using. It is an app that allows you to make video calls with unknown people based on algorithms. It has accumulated 540 million downloads in 230 countries. Among them, the share of overseas users is about 99%.
Real-time web communication (web RTC·Real-Time Communication) technology is classified as a core technology of HyperConnect. Quickly connect video calls without going through a server in a mobile app, etc. Thanks to this, it can be used smoothly even in areas where the smartphone performance is poor. Through this, users rapidly increased in the Middle East and elsewhere.
In addition to Azar, HyperConnect is targeting the global market with video-based social network services that have gained strengths, such as the dating app’Slive’ and the social live streaming service’Hakuna Live’ operated by the subsidiary Move Fast Company.
With this sale, co-founders and executives and employees, including founder Ahn Sang-il, will be able to win tens to hundreds of times more stock options (stock options). As of 2019, HyperConnect’s issued shares amounted to 1131,833 million shares, with a face value of 500 won. The price per share is about 170,000 won, based on the sale amount of 1.93 trillion won. The exercise price for stock options granted to executives and employees ranges from 500 to 398,000 won.
HyperConnect is said to have given its employees seven stock options from 2014 to 2019. That number is 1.76 million shares. Excluding the volume expired or exercised by 2019, there are 805,000 stock option stocks remaining.
Altos Ventures and SoftBank Ventures, which had a relationship with HyperConnect by attracting external investment in 2014 and 2015, are also expected to increase profits up to 13 times. Altos Ventures participated in 2012 as a Series A investor and invested 2 million dollars (about 2.2 billion won), including the purchase of 833330 redeemable convertible preferred stocks (RCPS). The issue price was 12,600 won per share.
In November 2015, with Series B (subsequent investment), Altos Ventures also acquired 2012,740 preferred stocks for about 10 billion won. In addition, SoftBank Ventures invested the same scale. The price per share is 4,7556 won, and the cumulative issuance of preferred stock is 29,360,070.
Considering that HyperConnect’s stock value is currently held at KRW 170,000 per share, the preferred stock invested in 2014 is estimated to have increased by 13 times in 2014 and 3 to 4 times in 2015. The stakes are worth 28.6 billion won and 35 billion won, respectively. In addition, Korea Investment Partners owns a stake in HyperConnect through the acquisition of old stocks.
An industry insider said, “HyperConnect has received a lot of follow-up investment in Korea since its initial investment in 2014-2015. In particular, Altos added another case of big investment following Coupang, Graceful Brothers, Krafton and Viva Republic.” did.