Tasty9

About Tasty9

Tasty9 is a South Korean food producer specializing in home meal replacements (HMR) and ready-to-eat meal kits. Founded in 2015 by Hong Ju-yeol, the company established itself as a significant player in the rapidly growing meal kit market. It developed a diverse menu of over 250 to 400 items, spanning Korean, Chinese, and Japanese cuisines.

The company's business model, described as a Specialty store retailer of Private label Food (SPF), integrates planning, manufacturing, and distribution to quickly respond to consumer trends. This agile approach allowed it to launch new products within weeks, a process that takes traditional food companies several months. Tasty9 primarily focused on B2C (business-to-consumer) sales, creating brands tailored to specific sales channels and operating 35 of its own offline retail stores where customers could both eat and purchase meal kits.

In January 2022, Fresheasy, Korea's largest meal kit provider, acquired Tasty9 for approximately 100 billion won (around $83.5 million). At the time of the acquisition, Tasty9 was the second-largest company in the Korean meal kit industry. The merger was a strategic move to solidify market leadership, combining Fresheasy's B2B-focused operations with Tasty9's B2C strengths and offline retail presence. Following the acquisition, founder Hong Ju-yeol remained CEO of Tasty9 and also became a co-CEO of Fresheasy, participating in major decision-making. After the successful sale of Tasty9, Hong Ju-yeol went on to found 'Pleasant Project' (also known as Clify), an AI-based B2B mental healthcare platform.