윤형운 대표

The restoration of ‘shuttle diplomacy’ between Korea and Japan last May opened the way for startups to advance into Japan.

Amid predictions that the Japanese market could be a growth breakthrough for startups enduring a harsh investment climate, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Tourism Organization recently selected 12 startups in the transportation, lodging, and technology sectors last month to receive IR (Y) for Japanese investors. Hosted by Anne Archer) was held for the first time.

Among the 12 startups that participated in IR for Japanese investors, we met with Chashmallow (CEO Hyungwoon Yoon) to hear about their future plans.

"Starting from next year, we will focus on expanding our customer base, with the goal of expanding to more than 50 financial institutions in over 20 countries, including Japan, by 2025."

CEO Hyungwoon Yoon said, “For more than 40 years, Visa and Mastercard have monopolized about 90% of the market (excluding China), but we want to grow into one of the top three network providers within 5 years. All team members are doing their best to achieve this.” He said.

Founded in 2016, Chashmallow is a company that provides a global traveler payment network to financial institutions.

Cashmallow’s B2B solution, ‘MalloLink’, gathers each country’s ATM or simple mobile payment networks into one and provides them as an API.

Customers can immediately launch traveler currency exchange and payment services using ‘MalloLink’.

CEO Yoon said, “Currently, we have secured financial service companies in Canada and the UK as customers, and we have also completed securing customers for the four major domestic banks and are in development for launch within the year.”

He added, “We have acquired a license for direct overseas remittance and are operating a mobile traveler currency exchange service in Hong Kong under the name ‘Cashmallow.’ We are planning to launch it in Japan following Korea in the near future.”

The biggest competitive edge of ‘MalloLink’ is cost reduction.

CEO Hyungwoon Yoon said, “For banks, the currency exchange method currently operated at offline branches can be converted to digital, saving manpower and rent.”

“Also, if we provide a currency exchange service using MallowLink instead of importing by air for in-kind procurement or purchasing the traveler’s remaining currency, it is possible to minimize exchange loss.”