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Education startup Day1 Company hopes to raise $25 million in IPO

Published: 10 Jan. 2025, 18:17 Updated: 10 Jan. 2025, 19:48

KIM JU-YEON
[email protected]

Day1 Company CEO Lee Kang-min talks to reporters at a press conference in Yeouido, western Seoul on Jan. 10, ahead of the edtech firm's initial public offering (IPO) set to take place on Jan. 24. [DAY1 COMPANY]

Day1 Company hopes to raise 36.3 billion won ($24.7 million) in its initial public offering (IPO), seeking to cash in on the current frenzy for AI-related skills at workplaces around the world.

The edtech startup will offer 1,361,000 shares at 22,000 won to 26,700 won, valuing the firm at 298.4 billion won to 362.2 billion won. The subscription period for the IPO, managed by Mirae Asset Securities and Samsung Securities, will run from Jan. 15 to Jan. 16, with shares to begin trading on the Kosdaq on Jan. 24.

Day1 Company offers online classes for adults divided into different categories by target demographic, format and subject matter. Its most popular brand, for instance, is Fast Campus, a business-to-consumer (B2C) online course for office workers who want to learn practical skills in AI, data science, programming and finance.

The company is pushing ahead with an ambitious plan to integrate AI across its portfolio to better appeal to a global audience — and cut costs.

“No one knows where AI will take us, but what company workers do think is that they will have to learn how to use AI,” Day1 Company CEO Lee Kang-min said at a press conference for the startup’s initial public offering (IPO) on Friday, the last day of the company’s book-building process.

The CEO said the company will expand its one-source multi-use strategy that repurposes popular B2C courses made for business-to-business sales or translate the material to better appeal to global consumers. It also reduced production costs by replacing human translators with AI to translate the course material and using AI chatbots for customer service, which the company expects to improve its profitability by 1.5 to 2.5 percentage points across its entire business.

Around 11.6 percent, or 13.5 billion won, of the company's sales came from global customers in 2023. The company has been creating content for the United States and Japan since 2020; Day1 has units in Japan and Taiwan and plans to also establish them in the United States and Indonesia.

Day1 continuously recorded operating losses until 2022 before turning a profit in 2023 — it was forced to convert redeemable convertible preference shares to ordinary shares in order to resolve a capital impairment last year, in preparation for the IPO. It currently has 23.9 billion won in total assets.

The company hopes to make 20 billion won in operating profit this year by cutting down on costs, including marketing fees, Lee said.

BY KIM JU-YEON [[email protected]]