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[Article] KILSA Global featured in K Global Times – Singapore-centric startup hub linking Korea and Singapore

KILSA Global featured in K Global Times – Singapore-centric startup hub linking Korea and Singapore

[K Global Times]

Kevin Kwon, Country Director of KILSA Korea

Featuring KILSA Global, a cross-border business management specialist helping foreign companies in their overseas business expansion via Singapore – the Silicon Valley of Southeast Asia and the base for the Southeast Asia startup ecosystem.

Founding of KILSA, a BPO company that supports the entire process for overseas expansion

KILSA Global, headquartered in Singapore, provides business process outsourcing (BPO) services for companies seeking overseas expansion. Since its inception, KILSA seeks to serve as the link between Singapore and Korea. The link between the two Asian markets has strengthened through the establishment of KILSA Korea, the first overseas office set up in 2019. KILSA Korea is led by KILSA Korea’s Country Director, Mr Kwon OSoong (Kevin) and a local team of passionate and devoted professionals. In addition to its Korean corporation, Kilsa Global has branches in Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam to help global startups expand overseas throughout Southeast Asia.

KILSA supports startups in the entire process of overseas expansion, such as providing information on Southeast Asia, market validation, and connecting with partners. It is like outsourcing of global business processes. If existing BPO companies were limited to specific areas such as finance and market research, KILSA focuses on business development and management activities, covering aspects of operations in overseas branches such as sales, marketing, partnership development, and funding.

Mr Kwon OSoong, Country Director of KILSA Korea, shared his experience in operating a consulting company in Singapore to support Korean companies entering Singapore. However, as a private company, there were many restrictions on its activities, so KILSA Global was founded at the suggestion of a Singaporean investment company. KILSA collaborates with the Singapore government and its related organizations and several business networks.

KILSA is also working closely with Korean government agencies, such as the Small and Medium Business Corporation and KOTRA that are actively discovering and promoting companies with great potential. Government agencies open the door for more companies to go abroad and create synergy by conducting follow-up support for each company from the private sector. In fact, KILSA has recently taken on the role of supporting entry into Southeast Asia as a private medium-sized foreign network.

“To date, services that help companies advance overseas revolve around market research and entry strategy consulting. In fact, KILSA’s management team believes that what is needed to advance overseas is to develop a localization strategy and a business model that fits the target market/industry. However, there are not many providers that can provide comprehensive strategy and structure for end-to-end business engagement. KILSA Global is committed to handling “A to Z” business activities required for overseas expansion, including business development, partnerships, funding, and marketing. ” Mr Kwon commented.

Webinar Session (Photo Courtesy of KILSA Korea)
Attaining rapid entry and growth with informative market insights and validation attained via “KILSA Base”

It usually takes about three years for a startup to settle and build a foundation that supports sales activities independently. According to experts, it costs about 500 million won to stabilize and generate sales. It is also the main reason for the reluctance to expand abroad. Mr Kwon added that the lack of information and difficulty in finding a local partner is the biggest barriers to overseas expansion, hence the reason for Kilsa’s existence.
Getting information on a target market is not just a simple search for information online. It takes more effort in executing the ‘ground work’ including recce and local inputs from the right industry expertise with rich insights. A ‘high-quality’ market research report should include both primary and secondary research and verification, as well as the entry strategy suggestions derived from analysing the opportunities that can be attained based on the company’s strengths and ruling out activities that have high barriers to entry.

No matter how good a strategy is, if it doesn’t work out, it’s a ‘[su_highlight background=”#aacbff”]말짱 도루묵 maljjang dorumuk[/su_highlight], (a Korean proverb describing a futile [pointless] effort, a vain effort). KILSA provides a one-stop service from information collection to strategy establishment and implementation. Mr Kwon added, “The KILSA local teams provide customized support by inviting local experts in each field as overall project management. Startups can achieve the fastest growth curve possible through ‘KILSA Base’, and not zero bases.”

According to KILSA, the Southeast Asian market has recently been a major attraction for overseas expansion. This is because of the sizable and rapidly growing market, which has evolved from a production centre to a consumption centre, with 50% of the total population in their 30s or younger having high purchasing power. Hence, the focus of overseas expansion has changed from North America and Europe to Southeast Asia.

Mr Kwon said, “Since the trend is like this, some people seem to think that it is easy to compete. You should not blindly enter the market after hearing rumours that Vietnam is good or Indonesia is popular. It is important to accurately grasp the situation at the site and determine the timing for the company to enter.”

Pitch Day (Photo Courtesy of KILSA Korea)
Various cases of successful overseas expansion, efforts to discover more companies

On average, KILSA contacts between 150 and 200 companies annually. Some companies reached out to KILSA because they want to expand overseas, and through the engagement, KILSA discovers several of them are in the scale-up stage. Recently, many companies that Mr Kwon met are introduced through collaboration projects with government agencies such as the Seoul Business Agency. Among these companies, KILSA has entered into contracts with about 20 domestic and foreign companies annually and has journeyed with them throughout the entire process of entering overseas markets.

Currently, KILSA is supporting the overseas expansion of “Company A”, which is considered one of the leading companies in the autonomous vehicles field in Korea. The company has entered the Singapore market for about one year and is preparing to enter the US. After speaking with relevant parties, KILSA and Company A are currently conducting overseas joint research and demonstration with a local institute, with possible collaboration from potential adopters or partners as a result.

In addition, KILSA has been collaborating with “Company B”, a geospatial company, to create digital maps in Singapore. They jointly established a business model and created a local customized strategy, which resulted in an agreement with the Singapore government for a ‘Green Lane’ approval that allows contracts with government-affiliated organizations without bidding. It was registered with the Singapore Procurement Service last year, and actual sales have been taking place.

At the same time, KILSA has also collaborated with a spin-off company of Hyundai Motor Company. As a company that manufactures air conditioner filters, it is gaining popularity by removing odours from filters with microbiome coating. The company entered Singapore together with KILSA and became the first startup to partner with Grab, a ride-hiring fleet management company in South East Asia. Because of this, the corporate value has increased and it has secured deals with the 3rd largest car rental company in Singapore.

Mr Kwon said, “Since last year, inbound Korean companies have been in full swing, helping Israeli companies expand to Korea. In the F&B field, we are targeting to open the first shop in Korea in the second half of this year. KILSA Korea has facilitated the closing of a master franchising deal for a Singapore company that makes healthy ice yoghurt. The master franchisee is a right fit for the brand as the master franchisor has been paying attention to companies that make alternative foods, with the aim of developing them into global companies by discovering domestic and foreign companies.”

A reliable partner for overseas expansion from the establishment of localisation strategy to execution and investment

KILSA plans to focus on raising brand awareness this year and hopes to meet and discover more promising companies that have the potential to be unicorn companies through overseas expansion. In addition, KILSA plans to build a system that goes beyond short-term support and even considers investing on its own. KILSA constantly seeks growth and its long-term plan is to create an investment company in Singapore dealing with direct investment.

The number of companies in different industries that KILSA is supporting is also expanding. So far, KILSA has helped high-tech companies enter overseas markets. However, in the case of domestic startups, there are many manufacturing companies in the cosmetics and food industries and smaller tech companies that require assistance in overseas expansion. This is the reason why manufacturing companies have turned their focus to overseas expansion.

Furthermore, one of the areas to focus on this year is open innovation. As the world is generating profits while saving time and cost through open innovation, the plan is to advance into the Southeast Asian market through open innovation effectively. In addition, it plans to develop its own algorithm to automate the overseas expansion process. This is so that more startups can enjoy accurate basic information.

Mr Kwon said, “So far, we have been limiting ourselves in supporting companies in areas of market development and business model development. In line with the goal of doing an end-to-end business cycle from market research to overseas establishment, we want to create a structure that equips KILSA’s in-house capability in delivering our services, including funding. Ultimately, we want to become a reliable partner that helps more companies enter the Southeast Asian market and succeed.”

Article extracted from K Global Times

KILSA is also featured as one of the Enterprise Singapore recommended In Market Consultants – Market Consultancy & Business Matching list for South Korea.