Choi Young-soo (Chemical Engineering, senior) and Shin Ah-young (International Economics and Business, senior) took leave-of-absence for startup and established S.Melin
Samsung provides funding and the Daegu Creative Economy Innovation Center provides technical and marketing consulting
High marketability verified by companies and institutes
[May 30, 2016]
<Co-presidents Choi Young-soo and Shin Ah-young of S.Melin, a startup company awaiting product launching after receiving investments from Samsung>
News was made as Samsung made direct investments to a startup founded by YU students.
This is the story of 'S.Melin', which is pursuing business by commercializing an idea. Choi Young-soo (25, Chemical Engineering, senior) and Shin Ah-young (22, International Economics and Business, senior) co-founded this company. Trusting their idea, they teamed up and took leave-of-absence from school for start-ups in their senior year.
The idea that they launched in the market is the mobile hair product, 'G.Roll'. This product combines the compact size of hair rolls and the functions of straighteners. Their idea was recognized to be excellent by sweeping various startup contests such as the '1st Global Youth Startup Camp' hosted by the Small and Medium Business Administration, '2015 Gyeongbuk Women Startup Contest' and the '2015 Gyeongsangbuk-do Outstanding Venture Startup Club' awards. Furthermore, it was reviewed by Samsung Venture Investments, which is a company specializing in finding and investing in venture companies, and the Daegu Creative Economy Innovation Center, thus being recognized to have high marketability.
G.Roll (mobile heated hair roll)
Give volume to front and side hair in just 1 minute regardless of the time and place.
This is an innovative product that is easy to carry around and cuts down the hair roll wearing time by 1/20, while lasting 3 times longer.
<S.Melin's idea product, 'G.Roll'>
S.Melin was recognized for the functionality of 'G.Roll' and was selected as a tenant company of 'C-Lab', which is a startup support program of the Daegu Creative Economy Innovation Center, from this year and is receiving consulting on technology and marketing. It is preparing to enter the market in full scale based on the funds invested by Samsung Venture Investments on two separate occasions - once in January and once in May.
S.Melin CEO Shin Ah-young showed her confidence stating, "We have received a lot of help from startup seniors and marketing and sales channel pioneering experts since we moved into C-Lab. We are planning to launch not only in Korea, but also foreign markets such as China and Japan as well."
'G.Roll' has registered three design patents and is currently has one patent and one utility model pending, and the product is highly perfected. It also released the product in the cloud funding site, Wadiz (www.wadiz.kr) in early May prior to the official launching, where it achieved its target funding amount in just four days, showing the positive response from the market.
Co-CEO Choi Young-soo said, "We participated in many startup contests and our idea became well known. Some companies even stole our idea and are selling similar products in the market. It's quite frustrating and disappointing." But he stated with an air of confidence, "People who pioneered the path of startups who start with just an idea like us have helped us greatly. We hope to be received well in the market and we will show that our product is better than imitations."
