Medipresso of Young-soo from 'I Am Solo' Ultimately Goes Bankrupt... The Bitter End of an 'Empty Shell' Financial Statement Hidden Behind Fame

The food-tech startup of CEO Kim Ha-seop, who gained public recognition by appearing as 'Young-soo' in the 28th season of the ENA and SBS Plus dating reality show 'I Am Solo', 'Medipresso', is ultimately going through bankruptcy proceedings. On June 2, 2026, the Seoul Bankruptcy Court declared summary bankruptcy for Medipresso Co., Ltd.

From the darling of wellness food-tech to bankruptcy... What kind of company is Medipresso?

Medipresso is a healthcare-based food-tech startup founded by CEO Kim Ha-seop in 2016. Starting from the idea, 'Could busy modern people conveniently drink herbal tea in capsules like coffee?', the company received significant market attention by independently developing Korea's first herbal tea capsules and an Internet of Things (IoT) extraction machine.

Recognized for its technological prowess and potential, it is known to have received a 1.2 billion won investment at an estimated corporate value of 7.2 billion won from Bluepoint Partners and others in 2020; a 2.2 billion won investment at an estimated corporate value of 14.9 billion won from Dongmoon Partners, Kyowon Invest, Magna Investment, and others in 2021; and a 1.6 billion won investment at an estimated corporate value of 19.6 billion won from ROI Investment Partners and others in 2023.

[Source: Medipresso Homepage]

'Summary bankruptcy' declaration proves an empty safe

The 'summary bankruptcy' declared by the court this time is a bankruptcy system that simplifies the process to save time and costs when the scale of the company's remaining assets (bankruptcy estate) is extremely small, at less than 500 million won. This essentially serves as legal confirmation that a promising startup, whose cumulative investment once reached billions of won, has now become an 'empty shell' state without even the minimum assets left to go through standard bankruptcy proceedings.

After peaking at 3.47 billion won in sales in 2024... Plummeting to 880 million won in just one year

Looking at the flow of Medipresso's condensed income statement, one can see the extreme rollercoaster the company experienced. The sales revenue, which was 230 million won in 2019, steadily increased to 1.1 billion won in 2021, 1.32 billion won in 2022, and 2 billion won in 2023, even achieving a slight surplus (net income) in 2023.

Following this, in 2024, total sales revenue surged significantly in a short period to 3.47 billion won, achieving noticeable top-line growth. However, in the following year, 2025, total sales revenue sharply dropped to 880 million won compared to the previous year (3.47 billion won), collapsing miserably, and recording a net loss of 790 million won for the year.

Surviving by selling off all lucrative real estate assets... Cash depleted in just one year

The most direct background to why bankruptcy became inevitable is that, despite selling off all lucrative assets to raise funds, the massive cash was completely exhausted in just one year. Until 2023, Medipresso possessed solid real estate assets amounting to 660 million won in land and 1.97 billion won in buildings.

However, in the 2024 statement of financial position, these real estate assets entirely disappeared. This is a trace of the attempt to somehow secure cash to keep the company alive. Yet, the point is that even after securing the proceeds from this real estate sale, the cash and cash equivalents held by the company as of the end of 2025 were left at only 30 million won (34.75 million won).

Annual sales are 880 million won, but the warehouse has 2.96 billion won worth of inventory... A collapsed business cycle

Even as core sales plummeted, bad inventory exploded without brakes. The company's inventory assets snowballed every year, going from 840 million won in 2021 to 1.34 billion won in 2022, 2.67 billion won in 2024, and 2.96 billion won in 2025. The fact that the annual total sales are merely 880 million won, yet the inventory piled up in the warehouse is approaching 3 billion won, suggests that the company's normal production and sales cycle has been completely destroyed.

In the midst of such a severe management crisis, CEO Kim Ha-seop seems to have tried to find a breakthrough by raising his and the company's awareness through appearing on the broadcast of 'I Am Solo'. However, rather than intense contemplation on improving the company's essential product competitiveness or financial structure, the simple sales expansion strategy through increased awareness did not work in reality.

Particularly, the excessive use of inefficient marketing was painful. In 2025, when sales were shrinking, the company spent a whopping 230 million won on advertising and promotional expenses. This is an amount that increased by more than four times compared to the previous year (50 million won), and this reckless execution of expenses, akin to pouring water into a bottomless jug, ultimately hastened and shortened the company's lifespan.

The founder's fame does not guarantee success

It is understood that in the crowdfunding conducted in 2025 as well, Medipresso set out to raise funds by presenting a rosy target of '17.5 billion won in sales', but was thoroughly ignored and failed to succeed.

Ultimately, the company appears to have fallen into a severe state of default. With only 30 million won of cash on hand immediately, it had absolutely no ability to repay the massive debt totaling 3.25 billion won, including the accumulated long-term borrowings of 2.32 billion won, and ultimately met the bitter end of bankruptcy.

In past interviews, CEO Kim Ha-seop emphasized several times that "the most important thing in a startup is not the item or capital, but the founder's mentality." While opinions within the industry are recently divided regarding startup CEOs' over-immersion in social media or broadcast appearances, this bankruptcy case of Medipresso leaves a lesson for the startup ecosystem that "the CEO's flashy personal awareness or broadcast exposure by no means guarantees the essential and substantial success of the company."