| Yello Mobile 옐로모바일 | |
| Founded: | 2012 in Seoul, South Korea |
| Hq Location Country: | South Korea |
| Industry: | Software industry |
| Founder: | Sanghyuk Lee |
Yello Mobile is a South Korean mobile software company based in Seoul.
Yello Mobile was founded in 2012 by Sanghyuk Lee. The company began as startup incubator, utilizing a variety of equity-based investments to consolidate software businesses in South Korea.[1] Yello Mobile's approach was new for South Korea in 2012.[2] It was also considered one of South Korea's first unicorn startup companies.[3] Over a period of 6 years, the company acquired over 94 startup companies in their SMATO (Shopping, Media, Advertisement, Travel and Online-to-Offline) categories.[4]
Revenue increased from 68 million won (US$60,463) in 2012 to 527 billion won (US$468 million) in 2017. It also faced lawsuits and with investors over Lee borrowing from partners and affiliates without paying them back.[5] [6] The company pulled their initial public offering from the KOSDAQ,[3] and in February 2019, the company announced that Lee had resigned as CEO[7] amidst rumors of bankruptcy proceedings and embezzlement accusations.[7] [8]