Intween Builds Integrated Service Platform for Startup Education, HR, and Global Expansion.

- Intween is a company that provides integrated services for startup education, 
  HR, and global expansion, including platforms for connecting lecturers, 
  mentors, and global talent.
- Their core solutions help startups systematically manage human resources and 
  support employee growth, with recent advancements in AI and security 
  through collaboration with Oracle.
- The company also actively supports startups in global market entry through 
  accelerator programs and export voucher initiatives, working closely with 
  government organizations and international partners.


“Intween’s mission is to help people grow by connecting them with each other. I believe the key to achieving that growth lies in the connections between companies, and between founders and employees. That is why we operate various services for corporate and personal growth: ‘GangsaInfo’ (Lecturer Info), which connects lecturers and speakers; ‘Sasurae,’ which connects mentors and mentees; ‘Vello,’ which connects with overseas talent; and 'CrowdIn' for crowdfunding support, as well as Intween Ventures.”

For over a decade, CEO Se-heon Choi has been supporting startups and engaging in various business activities within the startup ecosystem. He says that rather than entrepreneurship itself, he originally wanted to establish a formula for creating new things and felt rewarded by helping others grow.

Se-heon Choi, CEO of Intween / source=IT dongA

From his early 20s, Choi ran a psychology community, organized gatherings and studies, and built a knowledge-sharing platform with many people, naturally leading him down the path of entrepreneurship. This led him to found Intween in 2014. Today, the company supports startups across various fields essential for growth, including HR services, education, MICE, marketing, and global expansion. Intween is currently collaborating with over 50 government-affiliated organizations that have related needs.

Intween Offers All-in-One HR Solution Covering Lecturers, Mentoring, Global Talent, and Startups

Intween’s journey began in 2014 with GangsaInfo. This service allows users to set a budget, lecture date, time, and topic to recruit suitable speakers and star instructors. In 2021, the company planned and built ‘Sasurae,’ a mentoring Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform that connects experienced seniors (known as Sasu) with new junior employees (Busasu). This year, ‘Vello,’ a service connecting local IT and design talent from Vietnam with domestic Korean companies, is also being pursued as a new business.

All services operated by Intween focus on the growth of startup and corporate employees. Many startups struggle with personnel and organizational management, but finding systematic solutions is difficult. Intween is building an integrated growth solution to practically solve these human resource challenges. This solution combines GangsaInfo, which provides customized training programs to enhance employee capabilities; Sasurae, the mentoring SaaS that supports the growth of new and junior members; and Vello, the service that connects companies with outstanding global talent.

Intween is advancing Sasurae's AI services after being selected for Oracle’s 'Miracle,' a global corporate collaboration program / source=IT dongA

“In the long term, our goal is to integrate all services under the common denominator of ‘human resources.’ The first step is to advance Sasurae by introducing artificial intelligence (AI),” said Choi. This past February, Intween was selected for Oracle’s ‘Miracle’ global corporate collaboration program, receiving support for related technology development and cloud-based infrastructure.

He continued, “Sasurae is a service that matches mentors (Sasu) and mentees (Busasu) in fields like IT, design, marketing, management, and administration. We are introducing AI to this platform to find suitable mentors across a wider and more diverse range of fields. We are also creating AI chatbot functions for finding and managing areas of interest, and enabling corporate HR teams to hire mentors at scale, deploy them internally, and manage their progress and relationships. The key is that HR managers can systematically manage human resource development, while employees can meet mentors hired by the company to help them grow.”

Sasurae is provided separately for mentors, mentees, and educational administrators / source=Intween

The AI being integrated into Sasurae is targeted for completion of development and advancement by early next year through the Miracle program, heavily utilizing Oracle's technological infrastructure in the process.

“As Sasurae is an enterprise mentoring platform that handles sensitive personnel data, ensuring security and stability is our top priority,” Choi emphasized. “To achieve this, we built the service infrastructure based on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) and fully implemented the Oracle Security Suite. Based on OCI's high availability and multi-layered security architecture, we can operate the service stably even in high-traffic environments. We also encrypt and de-identify personnel data and AI training data using Oracle Data Safe and Transparent Data Encryption.”

He added, “We are applying Oracle's integrated security management system across the entire process, including access control and log monitoring, to create an environment that corporate clients can trust. We are also receiving help in strengthening our business capabilities through guidance on global programs, AI technology development consulting, and advancement.”

The supervising institution, Seoul National University of Science and Technology (SeoulTech), is also helping Intween focus solely on service development by providing guidance on global programs and support projects, as well as administrative assistance. A networking event for companies participating in the global program is scheduled for the end of the year.

Close Support for Startups, from Accelerating Global Leaps to Export Vouchers

Meanwhile, Intween established a separate accelerator subsidiary in 2021 to invest in startups and is providing close support for their growth through initiatives like the global market development support program and the Export Voucher Support Program. In this process, the company collaborates with government-affiliated organizations in each city and province, local governments including the Seoul Metropolitan Government, and universities nationwide.

Choi participated in the Vietnam HR Summit 2025, building a cooperative relationship with the Vietnam Human Resources Association. Left: Le Hong Phuc, VNHR Founder and Chairman / source=Intween

“At the company level, we are running various businesses to support startup growth,” Choi explained. “A prime example is the Export Voucher Support Program, managed by the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) and the Korea SMEs and Startups Agency (KOSME). If a company pays a certain portion of the cost, it receives support for overseas marketing, export-related business, intellectual property registration, logistics, and more. Intween not only directly helps pioneer new markets but also provides production of promotional and advertising content, support for e-commerce platform entry, and locally customized consulting.”

Intween is introducing key services like Vello and Sasurae to the Vietnamese market, building a bridge between Korean and overseas workers / source=Intween

In addition to the Export Voucher program, Intween provides startups with opportunities to enter the Japanese, Vietnamese, Singaporean, and US markets through institutional global support programs. In October of this year, Intween operated a pop-up store in Singapore for K-beauty companies to support local market testing and ran a support program that directly matched them with global buyers from companies like P&G and Watsons.

Next year, Intween plans to launch a program offering customized global practitioner training and team-building for startups wishing to expand globally. This program is being prepared with a global specialized company and will be offered through the Export Voucher program.

Choi said, “Our startup support is focused on global expansion, and our accelerating is also being designed in this direction. Recently, in the North American and Southeast Asian markets, demand related to K-beauty, as well as domestic content and manufacturing industries, is steadily growing. As we frequently encounter the potential and success stories of these companies, we intend to support even more companies in achieving this.”

Intween Aims to Be the Guide for ‘Finding People’ in the Global Market

Intween's multifaceted businesses are aligned with its mission: 'To achieve growth through the connection of people.' CEO Choi stated, “In the era of AI agents, AI completes tasks automatically without human intervention. However, managing human resources is a domain that requires a human touch, not just AI. Yet, the challenge is to successfully 'datify' people by skillfully combining AI. For example, AI is better at tasks like understanding, recommending, recruiting, and connecting mentors based on their knowledge, experience, and field-specific characteristics.”

He concluded, "Intween's business will continue to focus on connecting people. We will also consider integrating our three core human resource services—GangsaInfo, Sasurae, and Vello—to move in an even greater direction.”

By Si-hyeon Nam (sh@itdonga.com)

* This article was written with support from Seoul National University of Science and Technology.