S Korea’s Sexual Wellness Brand SAIB Attracts Seed Funding from 500 Startups

SAIB & Co, the company behind South Korea’s sexual wellness brand SAIB, has attracted seed funding from 500 Startups as it continues to confront sexual bias against women.

Financial details of the seed funding were not disclosed.

SAIB, which reverses the word bias, launched woman-friendly products in September 2018, including condoms that are considered safe for women. The company sells mainly two different types of products and then make donations for women’s rights from sales.

The company’s condom is a plant-based latex condom that excludes harmful substances such as carcinogen nitrosamine and parabens, anesthetic component benzocaine, spermicide nonoxynol-9, and other unnecessary additives and artificial pigments.

“We will develop a variety of new products to build a sexual wellness market and make sure that sexual wellness is recognized as part of a more natural and healthy life,” said SAIB & Co CEO Park Ji-won.

SAIB & Co is preparing to launch a variety of new products such as lactobacillus and cranberry’s proanthocyanidins, which are beneficial for women’s reproductive health.

Proanthocyanidins are chemical compounds that give the fruit or flowers of many plants their red, blue, or purple colors. They were first studied for their importance as plant pigments but these compounds may help prevent cancer.

500 Startups, the Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm, invested in SAIB & Co through its local unit, 500 Startups Korea.

Jeffrey Lim, 500 Startups Korea partner, said they have decided to invest in SAIB & Co because of the company’s philosophy of making products that consider women’s health.

500 Startups said it saw an opportunity to invest early and often into the next generation of South Korea’s most promising startups. 500 Startups Korea typically invests $100-250K per investment into 15-20 new companies a year in Korea.