Resident firm Nextpangia secures orders for 3.4 million K-beauty products through a major European retail network; graduates including Helper Robotics take root in the district with sales reaching tens to hundreds of billions of won
Amid Gwangjin-gu's ongoing efforts to support startups at every stage of growth, companies that have passed through the Gwangjin Economic Hub Center are expanding beyond South Korea into global markets and delivering tangible results.
The standout success story is resident firm Nextpangia Co., a cosmetics platform company with an AI-based product planning and supply chain management system. Its K-beauty brand Seonn, launched in June, has captured the European market through a partnership with a major Danish retailer — securing orders for about 3.4 million products worth approximately 7 billion won ($5.06 million) in just two months. The company is now on track to post annual sales of 10 billion won this year.
Graduate companies that grew at the Gwangjin Economic Hub Center are also making their mark. Helper Robotics, an industrial robot company developing serving robots and automated control systems, has grown to annual sales of 4 billion won. The company donated frying robots it developed specifically for local small-business owners and was named an outstanding graduate of the Gwangjin Economic Hub Center in 2026.
Another graduate, Yuwon Steel Industry Co., a patent-based automotive parts manufacturer, reached sales of 16.6 billion won within three years of its founding. The company has also donated a total of 10 million won to Gwangjin-gu to share the fruits of its growth with the local community.
The district goes beyond simply providing office space, offering advanced support tailored to each stage of a company's growth cycle — covering technology development, market access and investment attraction. Through this approach, Gwangjin-gu aims to build a virtuous startup ecosystem in which local companies leap onto the global stage and channel their success back into the community.
"It is deeply meaningful to see companies that planted their seeds at the Gwangjin Economic Hub Center reaching out to world markets while growing alongside the local community," Gwangjin-gu District Mayor Kim Kyung-ho said. "We will continue to provide generous, practical support — from move-in through growth and beyond graduation — so that companies that start in Gwangjin can become leading players on the global stage."
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