Gwangju subscription juice brand 'Oroti' and Busan food tech company 'Checkpoint Bread' selected as LIPS partners
ColesDynamics begins fostering local food and restaurant startups.
Gwangju-based subscription juice brand Orot (CEO Choi Yeon-hee), invested in by local startup accelerator Calls Dynamics (CEO Kang Jong-su), and Busan-based food tech company Check Point Bread (CEO Pi Jeong-chan), were both selected for the Small Business Corporation's 2025 LIPS program.
This selection marks the second and third achievements for ColesDynamics since being selected as the LIPS private operator in 2025, following the Nosh Project, demonstrating that the strategy to foster regional food and restaurant startups is bearing tangible fruit. LIPS is a system that applies the TIPS (Technology Incubation Program) support program to the small business sector. Private operators designated by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups and the Small Business Market Service make pre-investments in small businesses with high growth potential, and then, upon recommendation, receive matching private investment and government funding.
Founded in 2022, Oroti is rapidly growing by introducing low-sugar wellness juices that even diabetics can enjoy without worry. Rather than mass-producing in factories, Oroti is 100% hand-squeezed from fruits and vegetables to order. This ensures healthy juices without heat treatment, preserving nutrients. All Oroti products are made with locally grown produce, free of additives. They offer five daily juices, including "Popeye Juice," a blend of spinach sourced from a young farmer in Naju, South Jeolla Province, and Naju pears, apples, and ginger.
In particular, by adopting a subscription-based business model based on pre-orders, the company produces and delivers only a set quantity of products. Furthermore, through win-win partnerships with local farmers, the company is realizing the value of "local production, local consumption." Orot aims to sign contracts with at least 15 hospital subscription service providers this year, including its first contract with a hospital in Gangnam, Seoul. Orot officially opened a store in Shinsegae Department Store's Gwangju branch in September, with plans to expand into an experiential store focused on retaining regular subscribers.
Choi Yeon-hee, CEO of Orot, said, “I am delighted that being selected for LIPS has provided us with the foundation to continue taking on new challenges and expand our business.” She added, “We will expand our cold storage facilities to store raw materials from direct-traded farms for our juices, and expand our offline stores to the metropolitan area, starting with Gwangju and then Busan, to create brand synergy.”
Founded in 2021, Checkpoint Bread is an all-in-one food tech company offering integrated solutions ranging from food manufacturing and distribution, the "Pakdon Tongjokgalbi" franchise, IT platforms, and smart kitchen appliance development. Checkpoint Bread is gaining attention because it accurately identifies and proposes solutions to the real-life pain points faced by self-employed restaurant owners. Using its IT platform and food tech, it addresses challenges faced by restaurant owners, such as flawed profit structures, failure to secure clients, recipe quantification, and employee management.
The restaurant community platform "Checkpoint Bread" offers a bulletin board where users can exchange information necessary for opening and operating a restaurant, along with free information on restaurant locations, franchises, interior design, kitchen equipment, and food supplier information. It also offers government support information, recipe sharing, and a simple quotation service for entrepreneurs. Furthermore, the employee management app "Checkpoint Bread" is a specialized restaurant attendance management app that allows users to check employees' work hours, calculate their salaries, and provide payslips. This app has significantly reduced the burden of human resources management for small business owners. Furthermore, Checkpoint Bread is expanding its business into manufacturing and technology development, encompassing areas such as sous vide, meal kit production and distribution, smart kitchen appliances, and smokeless grill R&D, establishing itself as an integrated solutions provider encompassing the entire restaurant ecosystem.
“I started this business to solve the difficulties I experienced while running my own restaurant,” said CEO Jeongchan Pi of Checkpoint Bread. “With our selection as a LIPS partner, we will enhance our services to make it easier for more self-employed people to run their own restaurants, and we will lead innovation in the restaurant industry based on food tech.”
Kang Jong-soo, CEO of Coles Dynamics, said, “The selection of Orot and Check Point Bread as LIPS is another example of the potential for regional food and restaurant brands to grow into national and even global brands.” He added, “We will actively support Orot so that it can become a leading player in the healthy pleasure trend in the alternative beverage market other than coffee, like China’s Heecha, and Check Point Bread so that it can grow into a food tech innovation company for self-employed restaurant owners.” He added, “We will continue to support the entrepreneurial growth of local small business owners toward achieving our investment goal of a total of seven companies by the second half of 2025, and we will create a standard for the Korean entrepreneurial small business ecosystem.”
Meanwhile, since its establishment in 2013, Coles Dynamics has focused on fostering local startups, achieving a cumulative 3,273 incubated companies, 162 investment-linked projects, and approximately KRW 41 billion in investments over the past 12 years. Notably, since being selected as the operator of the 2025 LIPS program, the company has achieved notable success, including three consecutive selections: Nosh Project (Jagalchi Ojimae, Busan), Oroti (a subscription-based juice brand in Gwangju), and Check Point Bread (Busan Food Tech), solidifying its position as a growth partner for local food and restaurant startups. Coles Dynamics has established a substantial growth infrastructure through its UCU (Urban Creators Unit), which it established in Sinchon, Seoul, to support startups with residential and workspaces and to serve as a test bed for food companies through its local restaurants.
You must be logged in to post a comment.