[Interview] Park Jae-joon, CEO of Antock, “Solve the problem of asymmetry in the financial industry by integrating corporate information from around the world”
｜ Hubble database manages companies through a sample of approximately 1 million companies ｜ Antock MRI predicts corporate growth potential and risk levels ｜ “Solve the problem of information asymmetry in the financial industry”
Investments in startups are shrinking as the stock market stagnates due to rising US interest rates. Venture capitalist David Sachs spoke at WSJ about the current state of investment in US startups as “the most negative since the collapse of dot com 20 years ago.”
Chairman Son Jeong of SoftBank, which operates a startup investment pool, also stated that the amount of investment in startups can be reduced by up to 75% this year compared to the previous year. In a situation where investment in companies is sluggish, investors must select startups with bright prospects, and companies must be able to prepare well for risk.
Existing investors have mainly discovered corporate information through human resource discovery activities based on offline networks. As a result, excavation range and efficiency were bound to decrease.
Park Jae-joon, CEO of Antock, computerizes the corporate ecosystem, and supports easy discovery of superior companies and avoidance of insolvent companies. Antock integrates fragmented corporate data and provides intuitive analysis services using big data and AI technology.
｜The goal is to solve the problem of information asymmetry prevalent in the financial industry
At the beginning of the establishment of Antock, the goal was to provide a friendly listed company information service for individual investors. Therefore, the trade name was also a compound word of the ant 'Ant', which refers to an individual investor, and the securities' Stock '. Since then, the scope of information provision has been expanded to include samples of privately held, small and medium-sized enterprises, and startup companies. In addition, the company is diversifying application services such as risk management, academic research, and corporate self-diagnosis in analysis of investment purposes.
Antock has three core technologies. ▲ Big data infrastructure that can automatically obtain enterprise source data ▲ unique artificial intelligence algorithm library that can creatively analyze collected data ▲ visualization module that converts data so that evaluation results can be intuitively understood. Antock's flagship service, Hubble Database, is powered by this.
It seems that various services are needed to integrate extensive corporate information, but there are only two Antock services: the Hubble database and the Antock MRI based on it.
“Our main product is the Hubble Database (Hubble Database) solution. Just as we discover stars through the Hubble Space Telescope, we will discover good companies through data.”
The Hubble database automatically identifies more than 1 million domestic corporate companies and collects related data, and collects about 300 types of alternative data for each company and automatically updates it every month.
It is possible to understand companies in three dimensions, such as IP, contracts, awards, and media reports, and closely observe the performance of the business carried out by the enterprise. Users can discover unknown superior companies and even induce investment to create a virtuous cycle of financing.
The Hubble database also has a corporate curation function. If you enter keywords in your field of interest in the search box, they will recommend companies.
I wonder if it's possible to predict corporate analysis and forecasts with one click. Antock MRI performs automated enterprise diagnosis and evaluation based on data obtained through the Hubble database.
It performs corporate management diagnosis and performance prediction through 10 built-in unique diagnostic algorithms. The goal is to calculate more than 2,000 types of corporate management diagnosis indicators with a single click.
Paradoxically, when performing financial analysis, Antock makes intensive use of non-financial alternative data. Alternative data refers to all kinds of unstructured information such as technology, organization, certification, media, and business of individual companies, breaking away from traditional disclosure and financial information. This makes it possible to understand a company from a wider range of angles and perform analysis in a creative way.
When asked to introduce other services, Mr. Park said categorically no.
“In the early days, we used independent platforms and solutions for each listed, unlisted, and startup area. Right now, we're focusing on a few core products rather than a distributed revenue model. As a result, we were able to improve service quality and advance technology.”
｜We will act as a bridge for startups to leap forward and take on challenges
Prior to his establishment, Mr. Park carried out strategic consulting work for financial institutions at Ernst & Young (EY) Financial Consulting Division (FSO), one of the world's top 4 accounting firms, and CVA, a French consulting firm.
While working on corporate analysis for many years, he experienced inefficiency in the consulting process. Repeated handwriting activities for data collection occurred overwhelmingly rather than in-depth analysis itself. While researching ways to automate this, Mr. Park naturally became interested in businesses related to corporate data. In addition, CEO Park's tendency to enjoy creative work also played a major role in his decision to start a business.
After that, she went on to the Columbia University Business School program and prepared a business. In the process of starting the project, I proposed to my younger brother, Director Park Young-joon, to join. After graduating from Boston University's Department of Accounting and Korea University's Graduate School, Director Park worked as a founding member of an American startup for over 3 years.
In the early days of starting a business, financial difficulties were so severe that they had to think about establishing a company. The place that acted as a bridge for startups to pass through the Valley of Death, which is commonly faced by startups, is the Youth Entrepreneurship Academy of the Small and Medium Venture Business Promotion Corporation. Mr. Park said he wanted to prevent risks in startups, just as Antock was able to exist today with help from outside in difficult times.
“Korea has many startup support programs, so it's easy to start a business, but it's difficult to maintain a business. We want to help keep that momentum going through our services.”
｜Building a global economic ecosystem beyond Korea
As a fintech company, Antock has maintained a growth strategy through a self-generating profit model rather than attracting investment. Because of this, it was not easy to secure financial resources in the early stages, and many twists and turns were experienced.
Currently, revenue generation based on a stable subscription model is underway, and retention funds for growth are being accumulated. Sales of more than 2 billion won are expected this year, and sales are expected to exceed 10 billion won within the next 3 years.
It is also carrying out curation for public and financial institutions and investment companies, and technical verification (PoC) work on predicting corporate insolvency. Recently, all KB Kookmin Bank branches have issued Hubble database accounts. The public sector provides an automated discovery and reporting service for startups with innovative technology to the Institute for the Promotion of Entrepreneurship.
Antock aims to computerize the global economic ecosystem beyond Korea through the Hubble database. The ambition is to surpass global companies such as Bloomberg (Bloomberg) and Pitchbook (Pitchbook) by providing services not limited to specific companies.
Through this, it aims to be a foundation that can support various global economic activities such as investment, exports, and loans based on data. As part of this, they are testing the possibility of computerization in small city-states Israel, Luxembourg, and Singapore.
