Notable food tech startups have emerged in Korea.Life Cycle Nutrition Research Institute Gaonn (hereinafter referred to as Gaonn) with plant-based high-protein snack manufacturing technology challenges the new possibility of optimizing nutritional balance with AI nutrition analysis and solution matching services.
CEO Kang Bong-soo, who pioneered the snack king market with fundamental research technology and AI, saw the need for a nutritional balanced approach in Healthy Snacking, a global trend.Health functional pills, which are useful to support modern people's unbalanced diet, did not have the pleasure of chewing as crispy as snacks.He first considered whether it could raise the vegetable protein content in snacks to more than 40% (the world's highest).
It was a technology development that made protein chips using ISP and protein patent methods extracted from grains and reduced the protein chips back to high-protein snacks.
The study was joined by Choi Hyun, a former director of Ham So-ah Pharmaceutical Research Institute, and eight researchers with master's and doctorate degrees in food and nutrition.Based on this, CEO Kang started to prepare infrastructure for production and distribution of products.
For marketing by life cycle, we created three own brands.This is because it is necessary to check the nutritional balance suitable for adults, pregnant women, infants and children separately. Among them, LaBalance, tailored to adults and silver classes, shows the fastest growth rate.
Starting with the opening of Olive Young in February this year, it has expanded its offline distribution network to 700 branches in six months.
LaBalance Snacks are spreading smoothly throughout Asia as they are well received overseas, which is paying attention to the Korean Wave's inner beauty market.It is in the process of registering distribution through its entry into China, Vietnam, and Thailand, and products are already on offline shelves in Hong Kong.
CEO Kang majored in business administration and advertising at university and gained expertise in the medical business field.When he served as an executive in charge of planning strategy for a domestic bio company in 2011, he obtained a patent for an invention of a new technology called 'milk nutrition analysis'.
CEO Kang, who was inspired by business and planned a new business strategy here, found a full-fledged connection between nutrition and snacks, paying attention to changes in the boundaries between the pharmaceutical and food industries' markets.
Between 2012 and 2013, he applied for a patent in cooperation with faculty members of the College of Health Sciences of Ewha Womans University and laid the foundation for the business by obtaining a database (DB) of mothers.
CEO Kang said, "The existing bulk-up and shake-type protein powder consumed for diet purposes were difficult to convert to other materials due to its physical properties. 
So we developed technology. "We make and serve snacks based on the nutritional balance DB by life cycle," he said. This means that GaonN is not a confectionery company that only considers vegetarianism and protein. 
CEO's business strategy is bigger and more meticulous. He used the unprecedented high-protein snack manufacturing technology as a weapon to put the wings of an AI engine. Accordingly, in the second half of this year, it is set to launch an AI recommendation-based application (App: Hereinafter, an app) that provides balanced diet solutions by verifying nutritional balance due to users' diet conditions.

"GaonN Why pay attention to protein?  "
Recent vegetarian trends and the successful performance of large sports startups reflect global interest in vegetable protein.While the U.S. and European markets are biased in eating animal protein, Asian countries, where stocks are centered on carbohydrates, are rather negligent in eating protein itself. The low intake of protein from the late 40s to the silver class is notable in Asia, including Korea. Most of the silver layers, where the intake of high-quality protein with high absorption rate is more important, are concerned about poor work or hyperlipidemia. It was considered that they may experience protein deficiency. Adults also consume auxiliary proteins to increase basal metabolism, but female adults from childbearing to breastfeeding are actually encouraged to consume nearly twice as much protein. Focusing on this, I thought that the supply of nutritional protein should be expanded from Asia by analyzing each country's eating habits.
"What is your pride as a food tech startup?
"It is in the final stage of completing the ""Nutrition Match-Maker"" platform, which allows mothers to verify the nutritional balance of growing children and receive recommended diets. Even those who are aware of the recommended daily intake actually design their own diets that balance excess and scarcity. It is not easy to apply it every day in real life. The Nutrition Matchmaker app contains these realistic concerns. The nutritional analysis of the diet provided by the user determines that the AI engine crawls (a technology included in the index of data collection and search targets). Food ingredients and baby food products for nutritional balance optimization are implemented so that users can choose every morning. In the first half of next year, a service will be conducted to analyze and match the nutritional balance between mothers and children targeting women in breastfeeding from childbearing age. After that, we intend to connect the life cycle of the nutrition sector with an app that diagnoses the nutritional balance of the silver class and provides solutions. All diets are analyzed by AI and provided as customized personalized services."
Curious about the platform attraction strategy.
We`re going to enter the market with a collaborative strategy. Offline is promoting partnerships mainly with postpartum care centers, daycare centers, and online platforms and insurance companies, and some have signed partnership agreements. For example, we expect to create good synergy in the future by dividing roles into medical and nutritional balance parts with the medical information application "Yeolnayo Dotcom" that mothers are looking for.
What was the most difficult experience while conducting business and research?
"Finding research points is the most difficult part of consumer perception of health and commercial taste. This is because buzzwords such as "0 calories if it's delicious, sweet and salty" reflect consumer sentiment of eating even though they know it's unhealthy. Therefore, this is why GaonN is proceeding with the launch of a new product that has more market access even though it is a nutritional technology-based company. We want to strengthen the position of the long-tail brand with good products and services and naturally lead to a shift in consumer perception."

Tell me about your future vision with GaonN
 “Snacking does not mean only snack products.Just as the proportion of cereal and protein bars has increased as a substitute for meals, the boundaries between snacks and stocks in the food market are becoming blurred. In the short term, while aggressively conducting investment-cooperation between its own technology and related companies, the platform is judged and provided in real-time by AI based on user's personal helath record (PHR) data, but the accumulated DB is focused on commercialization of personalized services. By 2023, it aims to enter more than one product and service in each household around the world. In addition, the Official Development Assistance Project (ODA), which is still being planned and carried out, is not just a product support, but a goal of technology transfer as a sustainable aid project for the recipient country to increase its self-sustaining power. Since business is not done alone, there are so many grateful people around. I want to say thank you to my wife, five brothers, and everyone around me, who is a twin mother who always trusts and supports me. Also, I would like to ask you to watch Gaonn's future moves in a role that plays a part in society."