# Hyesung Kim

> Hyesung Kim is the founder and CEO of Mineis, the Seoul company behind Charan, a full-service fashion recommerce platform that collects, inspects, cleans, photographs, prices, sells, and ships used clothing on the seller's behalf. A University of Chicago economics grad who started his first ad-tech company as an undergrad and later worked as a venture investor, Kim built Charan to remove the friction that keeps closets full of unworn clothes. The platform passed 400,000 users within a year of its 2023 launch, was named to Forbes Asia's 100 to Watch in 2024, and raised a 16.8 billion won Series B in 2025, bringing total funding to 32.2 billion won.

- **Role:** Founder & CEO at Mineis (Charan)
- **Organizations:** Mineis, Charan, Freenters, EarlierCare, SparkLabs Global Ventures, KTB Network
- **Nationality:** South Korean
- **Education:** B.A. in Economics, University of Chicago
- **Known for:** Built Charan into a leading Korean fashion recommerce platform with 400,000+ cumulative users within roughly a year of launch, Named to Forbes Asia's '100 to Watch' list in 2024, Raised a cumulative 32.2 billion won (about USD 24-27M) across seed, Series A and Series B from Hashed, Altos Ventures, SBVA, Bon Angels and others

## Career timeline

- **2012** — Founded the ad-tech startup Freenters while studying economics at the University of Chicago
- **2014** — Graduated from the University of Chicago with a B.A. in Economics
- **~2015-2021** — Worked as a venture capital investment analyst (including KTB Network and SparkLabs Global Ventures) and co-founded EarlierCare as Co-Founder and CSO
- **2022** — Founded Mineis in January as a serial entrepreneur
- **2023** — Launched the fashion recommerce service Charan in August
- **2024** — Raised a 10 billion won Series A led by Hashed; named to Forbes Asia 100 to Watch; passed 200,000 then 400,000 users
- **2025** — Closed a 16.8 billion won Series B (Bon Angels, Hashed, SBVA, Altos Ventures), reaching 32.2 billion won total funding; launched Charan Market C2C service

## Achievements

- Built Charan into a leading Korean fashion recommerce platform with 400,000+ cumulative users within roughly a year of launch
- Named to Forbes Asia's '100 to Watch' list in 2024
- Raised a cumulative 32.2 billion won (about USD 24-27M) across seed, Series A and Series B from Hashed, Altos Ventures, SBVA, Bon Angels and others
- Pioneered a full-fulfillment recommerce model handling collection, inspection, sterilization, photography, pricing, sale and delivery
- Operates a roughly 1,200-pyeong inspection and fulfillment center in Namyangju, Gyeonggi
- Reports roughly 9,000 tons of annual carbon reduction, framed as the effect of about 990,000 pine trees

## Latest updates

- **2025-09** — Closed a 16.8 billion won Series B led with participation from Bon Angels, Hashed, SBVA and Altos Ventures, bringing cumulative funding to 32.2 billion won.
- **2025-09** — Launched Charan Market, a quality-guaranteed C2C secondhand fashion service aimed at reducing fraud and transaction anxiety in peer-to-peer trading.

## Links

- Website: https://charan.ai
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/hyesung-kim-9a560259

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/hyesung-kim
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-06-12