IMM Invests 9 Billion Won in Eco-Friendly Beauty Brand Tone28, Betting on Global Expansion

*Editor's Note: 'AI PRISM' (Personalized Report & Insight Summarizing Media) is an 'AI-based customized news recommendation and summarization service' developed with support from the Korea Press Foundation. It selects and provides six tailored news items for each reader type.

1. "We'll Pay Your Insurance When You Rent a Car" – Chasm Makes Bold Move

- Key Summary: Chasm, a car lease and rental brokerage platform, will launch two group insurance products for platform customers this month jointly with Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance. Chasm is the policyholder, and customers receive free benefits of driver insurance and deductible coverage insurance during their 3-5 year lease period. Founded in 2024 by CEO Jung Sang-yeon, formerly of fintech company Finda, Chasm has achieved 450,000 cumulative members and 260 billion won in cumulative transaction volume since platform launch. The company recorded its first monthly operating profit in October last year. "We will raise the lease and rental share in the car purchase market from the current 20% to 60%," CEO Jung said.

2. 'K-Beauty Scout' IMM Investment Picks Tone28

- Key Summary: IMM Investment, Korea's largest venture capital firm, invested 9 billion won in eco-friendly cosmetics company Tone28 through a combined structure of new share issuance and existing share acquisition. Tone28 is an indie beauty company that operates its own farm in Haenam, South Jeolla Province, developing cosmetics with pesticide-free ingredients. The company recorded 25 billion won in sales and 3 billion won in operating profit last year. The investment will be used to expand overseas sales channels including Amazon and TikTok. IMM Investment previously invested 4.5 billion won in APR (278470.KS) and recovered approximately 45 billion won. The firm also invested 130 billion won in Goodai Global, dubbed 'the second APR,' which is currently estimated to have a corporate value of around 10 trillion won.

3. "Introducing Token Pricing with AI" – ServiceNow Disrupts Software Industry

- Key Summary: Amit Zavery, President of enterprise workflow SaaS company ServiceNow, directly refuted concerns about 'SaaS-pocalypse' – the AI-triggered software crisis sparked by the emergence of AI agents. ServiceNow has partnered with OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google to apply core AI models including GPT, Claude, and Gemini to its platform, recording sales of $12.9 billion (approximately 19 trillion won) last year. The company also introduced a 'hybrid pricing' model that adds token costs based on AI usage to monthly subscription fees. Zavery projected that its flagship generative AI products, which generated $600 million annually last year, will reach several billion dollars this year. "Companies that don't understand AI or just add peripheral features to existing services and call it AI will suffer," Zavery warned.

4. 'AI Suggests Financial Services' – Kakao Bank Opens New Era

- Key Summary: Kakao Bank unveiled its future growth strategy centered on two pillars: AI and global territorial expansion. The bank is accelerating its transformation into a comprehensive financial platform by launching an investment tab in Q2, a payment home in Q3, and pursuing retirement pension services and capital company acquisitions. The bank also plans to implement an 'AI Native' environment with conversational AI integrated across all services, enabling AI to serve as a financial assistant that proactively suggests financial services customers need. Globally, following Superbank Indonesia's establishment as the No. 1 digital bank by market capitalization locally, Bank X Thailand is set to begin operations in the first half of next year, and the company has officially announced Mongolia as its third overseas base.

5. K-Beauty Rides AI Wave… Dramatically Reducing Production Processes

- Key Summary: Beauty industry players including Cosmax (192820.KS), Kolmar Korea (161890.KS), and LG Household & Health Care (051900.KS) are dramatically accelerating development speed by adopting AI across the entire process from ingredient discovery to formulation design and production. Cosmax increased its rate of completing color matching within four attempts from 52% to 78.1% through its smart color-matching AI system, while productivity at its Pyeongtaek 2 plant improved by 40%. LG Household & Health Care compressed the period for discovering efficacy material candidates from an average of one year and ten months to just one day using AI model 'Exaone Discovery.' Kolmar Korea reduced its formulation design period to one-third after introducing an AI-based customized formulation design system, and is pursuing expansion into services linked with smartphones and wearable devices.

6. Korea University Extends Entrepreneurship Leave Indefinitely… "Providing Free Startup Opportunities"

- Key Summary: Korea University has finalized amendments to its operating principles that effectively extend entrepreneurship leave from a maximum of three years to indefinitely. After using the basic three years, students can extend in one-year increments without limit, provided they submit business performance reports, financial statements, and employment status documents for each extension. The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) completely abolished leave period limits in 2021, and Seoul National University recently expanded entrepreneurship leave from two to three years, continuing the trend of major universities extending entrepreneurship leave. This reflects concerns that universities must serve as incubators for innovative companies amid a constrained startup investment environment. The number of startups in Korea dropped sharply by 23.5% to 1,135,561 last year compared to 2020.