Withweb launched Withinnovation as a separate subsidiary in order to focus on the accommodation business. This strategic move seems to have worked given the company revealed on the 8th December that it had secured an investment of US$11m (KRW 13b) from Korea Investment Partners and Mirae Asset Venture investment.
In April last year, Withinnovation began servicing the Korean motels with their O2O platform, GoodChoice (Korean 'Yeo-Gi-O-Dae' meaning ‘How is this place?’). In total, the service provides access to over 4,000 accommodation options, achieved more than 3.5 million downloads, and has more than 1.5 million monthly users.
Park Min Shik, the Investment Director of Korea Investment Partners explained, “The key decision factors in investing into Withinnovation were its innovation, corporate value, service strategies, marketability and positive feedback of GoodChoice”.
The investment will be used to further strengthen the position of GoodChoice in the accommodation O2O market as well as further innovations. Shim Myeong Sub the representative of Withinnovation commented, “We will aim to improve the satisfaction levels of both our users and partners with future service improvements”.
