– Expanding into a platform closely related to daily life, including insurance, communications, and education.
Accelerating business diversification… Targeting 50% of sales from new businesses
– Preparing for an IPO through M&A and new business
Jobis&Villains has set a goal of achieving a 50:50 revenue split between its flagship service, "Samjjeomsam," and the newly launched and acquired businesses launched in 2025. The company plans to balance last year's 70:30 split by expanding into new businesses. This year promises to be a year of diversification, extending beyond tax refunds to include a personal assistant service that helps customers find hidden funds.
2025 was a busy year for Jobis&Villains. Launched in 2020, Samjjyeonsam surpassed 24 million cumulative subscribers and KRW 2 trillion in reported tax refunds as of July 2025. This service provided tax relief to freelancers, riders, part-time workers, and multi-jobbers, who were previously overlooked due to tax blind spots, similar to year-end tax settlements for large corporation employees. The service has grown to reach 80% of the economically active population. New business launches and M&A have also been successful.
Jobis&Villains accelerated its business diversification throughout 2025. In February, it established the lucky tech platform "Luckyz" as a subsidiary, followed by the launch of the premium investment education platform "Samjjeomsam Campus" in September. In November, it acquired BQ, a used phone purchase and refund service provider, and MicroProtect, an insurtech company specializing in property insurance. This year, it plans to further expand the scope of these businesses.
The company also plans to actively pursue M&A. Jobis&Villains has accumulated M&A expertise through the successful completion of two M&As in 2025. M&A will be led by Ji Yong-joon, CIO (Chief Investment Officer), who was hired in September of last year. Ji is an investment expert who has worked at Macquarie Capital Korea, Nomura Securities (Korea), Skelter Labs, and GS Future Business Team.
"I reviewed over 100 companies over three years, but I didn't close a single one. M&A is a high-risk endeavor. However, last year's experience taught me how much risk to take and what factors to consider."
This is what Jobis&Villains CEO Beomseop Kim said. Focusing on new businesses and M&A is also a stepping stone toward an IPO. Jobis&Villains plans to pursue an IPO in 2027 or 2028 after confirming business diversification and stable growth in each business.
We met with CEO Beomseop Kim at the Jobis&Villains office in Gangnam, Seoul, to discuss Samjyeonsam's direction and new business strategy.
Evolving into a life-oriented service
Samjyeonsam is further enhancing personalization. Samjyeonsam introduced its AI personalization service in May of last year. By training LLM with over 12.2 million cumulative tax refund filing data, it was able to create up to 4,608 unique flows (logical paths) by combining customer-specific conditions such as occupation, income, gender, and age. This enabled approximately one in ten eligible users who previously failed to receive deductions to receive additional deductions.
Jobis&Villains is expanding beyond tax refunds to help customers find hidden money in blind spots of their lives. It offers benefits encompassing all aspects of their lives, including insurance, telecommunications, and mutual aid, and is actively transitioning into a platform closely tied to their daily lives.
A prime example is hospital bill reimbursement. Unclaimed medical expenses are estimated to amount to approximately 270 billion won annually, and of the 34 million people with medical expenses insurance, approximately 60%, or 20 million, have never filed a claim. Samjwimsam's "Hospital Bill Refund" service simplifies the process of claiming reimbursement for these unclaimed medical expenses. Users can instantly track and receive reimbursement for expenses incurred at hospitals or pharmacies but not claimed by the insurance company.
"We've been working on a hospital bill reimbursement service for several years. We initially started out as a partnership with a related company, but when we tried it ourselves, the results were so positive that we acquired MicroProtect last year."
In the insurance sector, users can access information on health insurance, auto insurance, and travel insurance, as well as check their current premiums and receive personalized product recommendations and consultations. A loan comparison service is also available, allowing users to compare and apply for financial products like credit loans and mortgage loans without visiting a bank. The 100 won monthly funeral assistance service, in collaboration with Goi Funeral Research Institute, a funeral service specialist, is priced at the time of subscription, eliminating the burden of inflation. In the communications sector, we offer affiliated services to maximize benefits throughout the entire process, from mobile phone purchase and plan selection to used phone refunds.
"Delivery riders have to use multiple phones simultaneously, including Baemin and Coupang phones, and buying a new one can be a significant expense. Offering them a rental option would give them the opportunity to take additional calls. That's why we acquired BQ, a mobile phone rental and used phone purchase service for riders and gig workers."
Recently, there has been a surge in the number of places offering services similar to tax refunds. CEO Kim views this as a social imperative, not a competitive one.
"No one, like in the past, thinks 'May has nothing to do with me.' In that sense, I believe Jobis & Villains achieved 'irreversible innovation.' Like a spring. It's not a spring that stretches to its limit and then returns to its original state. Instead, it crossed a critical point and caused a permanent, irreversible change."
Samjjyeonsam's irreversible innovation was driven not only by personalization but also by meticulous verification. Inspired by QA practices in the IT industry, the company introduced the concept of "TQA (Tax QA)", a dedicated tax verification unit. Samjjyeonsam meticulously reviews national tax law provisions, particularly exceptions that even professional tax accountants often overlook, and conducts hundreds, even thousands, of repeated verifications. This approach has reduced tax refund errors to virtually zero, significantly enhancing service reliability.
"We deal with money. Even errors in the hundreds or thousands of won are significant. In our QA team, about five to ten people analyze tax laws and verify that they're properly reflected in our algorithms."
Freelancers are like office workers
Samjjangsamcampus has surpassed 100,000 subscribers, and its third paid course, which opened last month, has attracted over 6,000 students. Samjjangsamcampus effectively serves as an HR team for freelancers and self-employed individuals.
While company-sponsored growth programs like new employee training and promotion training are available to company employees, freelancers and self-employed individuals must find these on their own. Samchwisam Campus offers everything from basic stock education to daily market analysis reports. Ultimately, our goal is to create an environment where individuals can earn their own money through expert-level information.
Luckyz surpassed 700,000 users in just ten months since its launch. Luckyz offers lottery tickets for watching ads or completing missions. Rather than issuing its own numbers, it uses actual lottery numbers from government-issued lotteries and EuroMillions. This prevents the platform from arbitrarily manipulating the odds of winning.
These new businesses, which have expanded beyond tax refunds to include insurance, mutual aid, payroll advances, and loans, share one commonality: they all aim to improve the cash flow of non-regular workers. This diversification demonstrates Jobis&Villains' evolution from a "tax refund company" to an "agent that creates cash flow for its clients."
"Our target customers are irregular workers who don't receive adequate year-end tax returns, training, or financial support. We aim to act as a 'secretary' to help them find the money they're missing and help them earn new income. We aim to address this economic blind spot."
Jobis&Villains' mission is "irreversible innovation," creating positive change that cannot be reversed. 24 million Koreans have established a culture of rechecking their taxes every May, and this has now become a habit, extending to covering hospital bills, insurance premiums, and even telecommunications bills.
Beomseop Kim, CEO, says they're still halfway through their journey. It remains to be seen what kind of year Jobis&Villains will have in 2026.
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