# Hoshik Shin

> Hoshik Shin is the South Korean founder and CEO of Tridge, a Seoul-based agricultural trade and intelligence business founded in 2015. Previously active in commodity investment at Deutsche Bank and Korea Investment Corporation, he built Tridge around the problem of buyers and suppliers lacking reliable information about one another. His public work spans agricultural market access, trade policy and AI, while the company’s later financial difficulties complicate its earlier funding-led growth story.

- **Role:** Founder and CEO at Tridge
- **Organizations:** Tridge, TP Partners, Korea Investment Corporation, Deutsche Bank, Korea FoodTech Association
- **Nationality:** South Korean
- **Education:** B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, Seoul National University, M.S. in Financial Engineering, University of Michigan
- **Known for:** Founded Tridge in 2015 and developed it into an international agricultural trade and intelligence business., Led Tridge through its 2021 Series C and 2022 Series D funding milestones., Served as a co-president and opening keynote speaker at World FoodTech Conference 2024.

## Career timeline

- **2000** — Completed a mechanical engineering bachelor’s degree at Seoul National University.
- **2005** — Completed graduate study at the University of Michigan in financial engineering.
- **Before 2015** — Worked in global credit trading at Deutsche Bank and special investment at Korea Investment Corporation; led TP Partners.
- **2012** — Tridge’s press kit dates a disrupted 60,000-ton coal supply deal to this year; Shin’s search for replacement suppliers informed its founding idea.
- **2015** — Founded Tridge in Seoul.
- **2021** — Tridge raised $60 million from Forest Partners at a $500 million valuation.
- **2022** — Tridge announced a $37.2 million Series D led by DS Asset Management at a $2.7 billion valuation.
- **2023** — Spoke at the World Knowledge Forum and an Ecuadorian embassy forum on agricultural trade.
- **2024** — Delivered the opening keynote and served as a co-president of the World FoodTech Conference.
- **2025** — Discussed agricultural information asymmetry ahead of an APEC food-security workshop.

## Achievements

- Founded Tridge in 2015 and developed it into an international agricultural trade and intelligence business.
- Led Tridge through its 2021 Series C and 2022 Series D funding milestones.
- Served as a co-president and opening keynote speaker at World FoodTech Conference 2024.

## Latest updates

- **2026-06** — Tridge promoted a channel-partner program pairing its Ark buyer-discovery and Eye market-intelligence tools; this is a company product update.
- **2026-03** — Tridge described My Curation, an AI chat feature for generating tailored sourcing views within Eye.
- **2026-02** — Seoul Economic Daily reported that Tridge was being assessed below one trillion won in the venture market.
- **2025-12** — Maeil Business reporting detailed Tridge’s 2024 losses, negative equity and auditor concern about its ability to continue as a going concern; it also included the company’s explanation that product categories were being restructured.
- **2025-08** — Shin gave a written interview on information asymmetry and agricultural supply-chain predictability ahead of an APEC workshop.

## Links

- Website: https://www.tridge.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hoshikshin

---

Profile page: https://yespress.io/hoshik-shin
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-10-07