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MAKE'RENCE is a travel technology company that provides 'interexia,' a global local lifestyle sharing service. The company was founded in January 2022 by CEO JaeSuk Lee (33).
While traveling around the world for 390 days starting in 2019, Lee gained valuable insights from interacting with locals, inspiring him to create a travel service focused on 'connecting people.'
"MAKE'RENCE's vision is to transcend the travel experience and integrate travel into daily life. Currently, we operate 'interexia,' a local lifestyle sharing platform for foreign tourists and international students."
interexia is a social platform that helps foreign tourists and international students share their daily lives, hobbies, and culture with locals, whether they are Koreans or foreigners living in Korea.
Locals register their hobbies and daily lives as content, which foreigners can freely access and participate in. Rather than offering simple tours, the platform provides activities that focus on emotional immersion and shared experiences. Examples include the 'Retro Karaoke Tour in Hapjeong' and the 'Exploring the Used LP Market in Yeonnam-dong with Locals' tour. It is designed so that users can participate with only the content captions, without a guide, reducing the burden on locals and increasing scalability.
"While existing travel services focus on 'places' and 'information,' interexia provides content centered on 'people' and 'experiences. The reason foreigners find it difficult to experience the real Korea is because they lack touchpoints with locals. interexia fills this gap and has a competitive advantage over existing online travel agencies (OTAs) and other travel-related services through its content monetization structure for content creators, content design that can be executed without a guide, and a community-based nature that allows travelers and locals to freely interact with each other."
interexia is attracting users both online and offline through partnerships with foreign student communities, foreigner-related centers, study abroad agencies, and Korean language education institutions.
"We are inducing participant-centered viral marketing by operating the 'Ambassador Project' in collaboration with universities and local institutions, local tour challenges in Seoul, and social media-based exhibition contests, and we are also focusing on short-form video marketing."
interexia has attracted initial investment from two external agencies in the seed round. "We are preparing to attract pre-A investment to advance interexia's services and expand into new markets. We are expanding our connections with investors interested in this market, particularly because of changing trends in inbound tourism and platform businesses, along with the growing global interest in K-content and local culture."
What made CEO Lee decide to start a new company? "While traveling to 40 countries for 390 days starting in 2019, I realized that I enjoyed spending time with locals more than staying in nice accommodations or visiting tourist attractions. This experience convinced me that 'relationship-centered travel, not just simple transportation' is possible. I decided to start a company to create a platform that connects people easily and intuitively."
After starting his business, Lee said, "The most rewarding moments are when foreign participants say, 'I experienced the real Korea,' and when hosts who provided local content say, 'My daily life can be content for someone else, and I gained self-esteem knowing that.'"
"My biggest motivation is that we are creating a service where people's lives become content rather than just a simple travel product."
Currently, MAKE'RENCE consists of service planning, marketing, and development teams. "Due to our quick execution and flexible collaboration, we are internalizing the entire process, including continuous MVP testing based on VOC, market response verification, and content operations. In addition, we plan to hire excellent foreign interns and convert them to full-time employees to expand our business to the global market."
Regarding future plans, Lee said, "One of interexia's strengths is that users can quickly transition from consumers to providers. Foreigners visiting Korea receive information, but after returning home, they can quickly become providers. Therefore, we plan to expand our services to the global market by first conducting service verification in the Korean market."
Founded: January 2022
Main business: global-local lifestyle sharing service, 'interexia'
Achievements: Selected as the 'Best Company' by the Team Incubator Program for Seed funding; Won the 'Top Prize' at the Seoul Northeast Region Startup Competition; Won the 'Grand Prize' in the travel technology field at Startup Experts; Received the Korea SMEs and Startups Agency President's Award; Selected as an 'Excellent Company' by the K-Unicorn Academy; Selected as the 'Best Tourism Company' in Daejeon and Sejong; Selected as the 'Best Company' at the 12th Tourism Venture Business Exhibition Contest
reporter jinho lee
jinho2323@hankyung.com
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