LIKEALION Smiles Again After 3 Years... Turns to Profit with 4.1 Billion Won in Operating Profit in 2025

IT education specialized company 'LIKEALION (hereinafter LIKEALION)' has splendidly revived, overcoming the painful shock of its 2024 deficit to successfully achieve a massive turnaround to surplus in 2025. This is the result of overcoming the harsh winter in the IT market, which followed its peak performance in 2022 during the developer hiring craze amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, through rigorous 'fixed cost control' and strengthening of its core 'education business.'

7-Year Rollercoaster Performance... Successful 'Turnaround' After 1 Year Overcoming the Cold Spell

Looking at LIKEALION's performance trajectory from 2019 to 2025, the rise and fall and market cycles of the domestic IT industry are clearly reflected. From 2019 to 2021, when it invested heavily in early education infrastructure, LIKEALION recorded hundreds of millions of won in operating losses each year (900 million won → 450 million won → 290 million won).

Then in 2022, riding the unprecedented global IT boom, the company achieved explosive growth, reaching its highest performance ever since its founding with 21 billion won in sales and 7.1 billion won in standalone operating profit. However, this glory did not last long. The following year, in 2023, a hiring freeze and market correction period in the IT industry hit, causing operating profit to plummet to approximately 580 million won, and in 2024, the company suffered another downturn, falling back into the swamp of deficit with an operating loss of 700 million won and a net loss of 1.5 billion won.

In the midst of this crisis, the card LIKEALION pulled out was strict concentration on its core business. According to LIKEALION's 2025 audit report and summary income statement, the company achieved a perfect turnaround, turning into a massive surplus in just one year by recording 27.5 billion won in sales and 4.1 billion won in operating profit in 2025. The net profit, which was in a deficit in 2024, also turned to a surplus of 1.9 billion won, giving a green light to financial health.

Overwhelming Traction by Cash Cow 'Education Business'... Driving 93% of Total Sales

The biggest contributor to this dramatic performance reversal is the company's roots and core cash cow, the 'education business.' LIKEALION's education revenue in 2025 reached 25.7 billion won, surging by nearly 8.3 billion won compared to the previous year (17.4 billion won). This represents an overwhelming portion of about 93.5% of the total sales of 27.5 billion won in 2025, a figure that practically single-handedly drove the company's top-line growth.

This is interpreted to be due to the effectiveness of the global infrastructure expansion strategy, as well as the operation of a nationwide bootcamp that trains more than 10,000 talents annually. LIKEALION has actively expanded its programming education into the global market by cooperating with a network of 45 universities across the United States and local universities in Vietnam. Furthermore, collaborating with Oracle Korea to introduce the artificial intelligence (AI)-based customized learning management platform 'AXP' into the entire process of its bootcamps, thereby seeking qualitative advancement of educational services and expansion in B2B/B2C, also contributed significantly to its growth.

Focus on Cost Management... Liquidity Management Remains 'Homework'

Above all, the most notable point in the 2025 performance is the 'economies of scale' that led to a dramatic improvement in profitability. Even though the company's overall size expanded significantly as total sales soared by nearly 50% compared to the previous year, it maximized profits by tightly controlling the expenditure of major fixed costs.

Despite the successful performance turnaround, the core challenge facing the management ahead of 2026 is resolving short-term liquidity pressure. Based on the statement of financial position at the end of 2025, the total scale of 'current liabilities' that LIKEALION must repay within one year amounts to 10.4 billion won.

Looking at the details of this massive current liability, accounts payable to be repaid to business partners and external institutions amount to 1.8 billion won, and short-term borrowings procured from financial institutions and related parties under the condition of repayment within one year are 8.2 billion won. These two debt items alone easily exceed 10 billion won.

On the other hand, the cash and cash equivalents immediately available to LIKEALION at the end of the current period remain at only about 3.9 billion won, which is far below the scale of its current liabilities. Fortunately, as the company has recovered its internal cash generation capability from operating activities (a net inflow of about 3.3 billion won) through a massive shift to a surplus, how it will refinance or stably repay these massive short-term debts based on future cash flows is expected to be a key point to watch in LIKEALION's management in 2026.

As part of strengthening its financial soundness, LIKEALION has recently taken steps such as selling its stake in 'Modern Lion,' a non-fungible token (NFT) joint venture with Hyundai Card, and undergoing liquidation procedures, thereby boldly clearing non-core businesses and reorganizing its portfolio around its core AI and IT education business to further solidify its inner substance.