Fintech Darling 'Uprise' Valued at 240 Billion KRW Stands at a Crossroads of Survival After Exhausting 52 Billion KRW in Investment Funds

Once hailed as a frontrunner in the virtual asset robo-advisor industry and receiving the full expectations of the investment community, the startup 'Uprise' is facing its greatest crisis. Its past glory of soaring high by attracting large-scale investments multiple times is nowhere to be found, and it has exhausted all the investment funds it secured due to massive operating losses and regulatory headwinds over the past few years. Compounded by a rapid exodus of personnel, uncertainty about the company's survivability is higher than ever.

■ The Glorious Past 'Investment Rally' Where Valuation Jumped 40-Fold in 3 Years

Uprise garnered market attention by introducing 'Heybit', a quantitative algorithm automatic investment service based on mathematics and statistical techniques rather than human 'intuition'. Its strategy of generating stable returns by operating assets automatically 24 hours a day in the highly volatile virtual asset market hit the mark, leading to explosive growth.

Love calls from early-stage venture capitals (VCs) also poured in. According to Pdeck's data, starting with a 700 million KRW investment from KB Investment and Kakao Ventures in 2018 at an estimated corporate valuation of 5.7 billion KRW, it drew in Shinhan Venture Investment, Hashed, and others in 2021 to secure a 9 billion KRW investment at an estimated corporate valuation of 45 billion KRW. Riding this momentum, it attracted a staggering 34 billion KRW investment from Capstone Partners, KB Investment, Hashed, and others in 2022, achieving an estimated corporate valuation of 240 billion KRW and preparing to leap into becoming a fintech unicorn.

■ Growth Stunted by the Direct Hit of the Terra-Luna Crisis... 52 Billion KRW in Investment Funds 'Evaporated'

However, starting in 2022, Uprise's fate began to go rapidly downhill. From 760 million KRW in revenue (operating loss of 1 billion KRW) in 2020, it recorded 51.6 billion KRW in revenue and 10.9 billion KRW in operating profit during the virtual asset boom in 2021, reaching the highest peak since its founding. But after taking a direct hit from the virtual asset market downturn, such as the Terra-Luna crash in 2022, its revenue plummeted to 11.4 billion KRW, and it incurred an astronomical operating loss of a whopping 30.2 billion KRW.

The swamp of worsening performance was deep. It recorded 5 billion KRW in revenue (operating loss of 15.3 billion KRW) in 2023 and 8.4 billion KRW in revenue (operating loss of 8.9 billion KRW) in 2024, piling up tens of billions of KRW in cumulative deficits. In this process, the company attempted to put out the urgent fire by issuing 1.1 billion KRW worth of convertible bonds (CB) in 2023 while maintaining its previous corporate valuation of 240 billion KRW, but it failed to attract the large-scale follow-up investments needed to boost its valuation or turn the tide.

Consequently, the massive cumulative investment funds of approximately 52 billion KRW gathered since its inception are understood to have been entirely exhausted in the process of covering the large-scale deficits that continued from 2022 to 2024. As the enormous externally injected funds have run out, the company is currently struggling to operate by relying on about 8.8 billion KRW in retained earnings accumulated during its prime in 2021.

■ Flagship Business Suspended Amid Regulatory Headwinds, Employees Reduced from 126 to 22

Another fatal blow that held Uprise back was 'regulatory risk'. The company's virtually only cash cow, the virtual asset deposit service 'Harvest', met a complete termination in October 2023. This is because the business model of sending deposited assets out for operation was essentially deemed illegal under the 'Act on the Protection of Virtual Asset Users (Virtual Asset User Protection Act)', which was enacted in the wake of the suspension of withdrawals by other companies such as Haru Invest and Delio. Despite having no asset soundness issues, it was forced to close its core business after hitting a regulatory wall.

As its business momentum faltered, the organization also shrank to the point of disintegration. The number of employees, which reached 126 as of March 2023, has dwindled to just 22 as of January 2026. Combined with painful restructuring and the departure of key personnel, market concerns about the company's normal operations and future growth are amplifying.

■ Betting Survival on Pivoting to Traditional Finance... Will 'Robo-Advisor Pensions' Bring Revival?

Pushed to the edge of a cliff, Uprise is currently betting its survival on reducing the proportion of its virtual asset business and making a full-scale business pivoting (change of direction) toward the 'traditional financial market'. Its core weapon is 'dndn', a traditional asset robo-advisor operated by its subsidiary 'Uprise Investment Advisory'.

To secure an overwhelming market share, Uprise made a surprise decision to acquire Doomoolmori Investment Advisory, which operates the competing service 'Boolio', and is pushing to establish a new intermediate holding company, 'Horizon Wealth', to encompass them. Combining the assets under management (AUM) of both companies will amount to 520 billion KRW, propelling it to the number one position in the robo-advisor industry, and based on this, it aims to achieve 1 trillion KRW in AUM by 2025.

In particular, what Uprise is eyeing is the 'retirement pension robo-advisor discretionary management market' opening from the second half of the year. To this end, its subsidiary Uprise Investment Advisory has made painstaking efforts, such as carrying out two capital reductions without refund and a 750 million KRW paid-in capital increase, to meet financial soundness requirements by resolving issues such as capital impairment. In addition, it is preparing to preempt the market by signing memorandums of understanding (MOUs) for the development of retirement pension discretionary services with large financial firms such as KB Securities, NH Investment & Securities, and Korea Investment & Securities.

Amid a crisis of sluggish performance and a plummeting workforce, the industry's attention is focused on whether Uprise, which received a brilliant spotlight during its prime, can escape the crossroads of survival and rise again through its new winning move called the 'retirement pension robo-advisor'.