Seoul Exchange

About Seoul Exchange

Seoul Exchange, operating under its parent company PSX Inc., is a specialized brokerage platform for unlisted securities in South Korea. The company was founded in July 2019 by Yang Ju-dong and Kim Se-young. Kim's experience as an early member of the fintech startup 8percent inspired the venture; she observed that employees with stock options had difficulty liquidating them before an IPO due to the high barriers and risks in the unlisted stock market, a problem she believed technology could solve. Initially launched as a beta service called Pangyo Stock Exchange, the platform officially debuted in December 2020 as Seoul Exchange after being designated an innovative financial service by South Korea's Financial Services Commission (FSC) in April 2020.

The platform addresses the historically opaque and risky nature of over-the-counter (OTC) stock trading by providing a transparent and secure online marketplace. It primarily serves individual retail investors seeking to invest in promising pre-IPO companies and startup employees wishing to cash in their stock options. In partnership with established financial institutions like Shinhan Financial Investment and NH Investment & Securities, Seoul Exchange facilitates secure and immediate trade settlements, moving these transactions into the regulated financial system. Initially, the platform offered commission-free trading to attract users and increase market liquidity. After building a user base, it began to monetize its services in the second quarter of 2023, successfully reaching its monthly break-even point by November 2023 through a focus on R&D and operational efficiency rather than marketing.

A key feature of the Seoul Exchange is its ability to allow direct order matching and settlement without direct negotiation between buyer and seller, a significant improvement over traditional OTC methods that required personal information disclosure and offline contract exchanges. The platform utilizes blockchain technology to ensure secure transactions. Looking ahead, Seoul Exchange is expanding its business into the security token offering (STO) market, aiming to become a major distribution platform for tokenized assets, particularly focusing on intellectual property and other real-world assets (RWAs).