Leo Kim is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of N.thing, an AgriTech company that designs, reinvents, and develops products, connecting things and people by technology.
Early life and education
Hyeyeon Leo Kim was born in 1986. Kim graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in electronics and communications engineering technology from Hanyang University in 2013. He also attended Entrepreneurship for creative at Central Saint Martin.
Leo Kim resides in Ansan, Korea.
Early career
Kim used to work as Manager of Human Resources at Gada Entertainment, Intern at SK Telecom, Project Manager at MyungSungPlacon, Lnt Inc., and Korea Electronics Technology Institute.
N.thing
In January 2014, Leo Kim (CEO) co-founded N.thing, a plant management system based on IoT (Internet of Things), along with other fellow Hanyang University graduates, J Jeong (CDO), Seth Nam COO), and Tony Baik (CTO). The company is located in Seoul, Korea, and in North American branch office in New York.
N.thing is one of the leading IoT South Korean companies specialized in the gardening and agriculture industry. The team aspires to connect people to nature. The founders believe that people can come close to nature in easy manners through their technologies. N.thing imagines the world where anyone can be a farmer with its technologies.
In April 2015, N.thing initially promoted Planty on crowdfunding site Kickstarter. Through Kickstarter, N.thing was able to raise more than $80,000 to support developments to commence. N.thing became the Google K-Startup Competition’s finalist in 2013. In 2014, Asia Bite selected N.thing as one of the top 10 start-ups among the five Korean start-ups, held in Taipei, Taiwan.
In 2015, N.thing also featured in beGLOBAL as one of the top 20 startups in the annual startup battle. The company has also gained positive feedback on its potential from Chinese startup accelerator Tri Beluga. In November 2017, N.thing participated in an event called Web Summit.
N.thing’s Products
Planty Cube is an internet-connected container farm, which launched in 2017. It is approximately 40 feet long and tall cube indoor farm that operates by LED technology. The smart farmer can have a real-time monitoring system through IoT sensors that collect cultivation data. There is an option of upgrading the software.
Planty Square is a modular hydroponic kit, which also launched in 2017. It connects each module and circulates water. Users can connect as many plants as desire with the square. Each square consists of four Pickcells, which has a special nutrient-rich sponge.
Planty is the world’s first Internet-connected pot, which launched in 2015. With Planty, the user can monitor the moisture in the soil, atmospheric temperature, and ambiance light around the plants. Anyone can water plants in Planty from anywhere, anytime. Planty comes in small sizes.
Life is a smart gardening journal app intended for gardeners and plant lovers, who want to record gardening activities. Life was the first product N.thing had launched. The users can record location, weather, information about gardening events, updates, etc. and share it on social media.
Funding rounds
In September 2014, N.thing raised an undisclosed amount in a seed round of funding from investor SparkLabs Accelerator, a Korean business accelerator providing investment solutions and mentoring for startups. In October of the same year, N.thing raised $26,000 in an additional seed round of funding, led by its existing investor, SparkLabs Accelerator.
In December 2015, N.thing raised $1.8 million in a Series A round of funding from its lead investor Korea Development Bank, a state-owned bank in South Korea that funds major industrial projects. In May 2016, N.thing raised an additional $500,000 in another Series A round of funding, led by Empower Investment. In December 2018, N.thing raised $2.8 million in a continuation of its Series A round of funding from investors UQI Partners Corporation and Spring Camp.
N.thing has raised a total of $5.1 million in funding over five rounds and funded by five investors. N.thing has $3 million in an estimated revenue annually.