Kick the Huddle

Founded in 2018, Kick the Huddle is a digital healthcare commerce company that emerged from the collaboration of its co-founders, CEO Kim Taeyang, a pharmacist, and COO Park Jin-hwan, who studied life sciences at Tsinghua University. Headquartered in Changwon, South Korea, the company's mission is to overcome the "hurdles"—such as environmental, economic, or systemic issues—that prevent people from accessing good health.

The company operates on a multi-faceted business model centered around personalized health and wellness. Its primary revenue stream comes from the direct-to-consumer (D2C) sales of its health functional food brand, 'Phytotics', which features a product line of over 30 items designed by pharmacists. A significant component of its business is the 'Fitamin' platform, a personalized supplement subscription service that leverages a matching algorithm and offers 1:1 online video consultations with pharmacists. This service was launched in partnership with R&D company (주)빅썸 and the Cham Pharmacy Cooperative. Kick the Huddle has expanded its customer touchpoints from a primarily online presence to an offline one through a strategic partnership with Hyundai Department Store, which included opening a flagship 'Fitamin' store in The Hyundai Seoul.

To engage a younger demographic, particularly the health-conscious MZ generation, the company established Kick the Huddle Studio in 2020. This media-focused subsidiary produces content and manages popular creators like Agent H and Dex, effectively using platforms like YouTube for marketing and to build a loyal customer base. This strategy extends to social contribution, with the M.P.P.C (Mission Possible Possible Campaign) program that supports national veterans. The company has demonstrated significant growth, securing an 8 billion KRW Series B funding round in March 2022, which brought its total accumulated investment to 14.2 billion KRW and valued the company at approximately 120 billion KRW. It was also recognized as one of the Asia-Pacific High-Growth Companies by the Financial Times in 2023.

Keywords: personalized nutrition, healthcare commerce, supplement subscription, pharmacist consultation, Phytotics, Fitamin, digital healthcare, D2C health products, health functional foods, online pharmacy platform, video health counseling, wellness technology, creator economy, media commerce, Kim Taeyang, Park Jin-hwan, Hyundai Department Store partnership, Series B, Korean healthcare startup, Asia-Pacific high-growth