Girr provides travel, social networking, and living information services for international students and foreign residents in Korea. It was founded by CEO Lee Hwabin (26).
Girr launched in July 2022 after being selected to receive incubation investment from the Incheon Tourism Organization. In July 2025, it completed the conversion from the existing Yeohaengui Mokjeok LLC to a corporation.
Girr operates a travel business through its brand Trip_girr and a social networking business through Social Girr, and provides a living information service through its AI chatbot KoAI.
Girr’s core service is a model that integrates offline experiences centered around the foreign community with an AI-based living information service. The travel/tourism program Trip_girr operates regional specialty tours, festival-linked travel, and cultural experience programs in collaboration with local governments and public institutions. It includes travel to the Jecheon International Music & Film Festival, extreme sports experiences in Danyang, and visits to local markets.
The social networking program Social Girr operates as a community that promotes natural exchanges between participants through culture- and interest-based socializing events such as dining experiences with traditional liquor, brunch with coffee, and theme parties.
The AI chatbot ‘KoAI’ is an API-based service that provides information about living, government, culture, and tourism in multiple languages to foreign residents of Korea. It links to travel and social programs to maintain long-term customer relationships.
“Girr’s competitive advantage is that it provides an all-in-one platform with travel (Trip_girr), socializing (Social Girr), and living information (KoAI) all under one brand. We are focused on capturing markets, such as foreign residents and international students in Korea, that have been overlooked by existing tourism and social services. We have established partnerships with local governments, tourism organizations, universities, and private companies. Another of our strengths is that we use AI chatbot- and data-based marketing to generate repeat customers and maximize new customer acquisition.”
Girr’s marketing efforts include precisely targeted ads on Meta and TikTok, along with the development of multilingual and visual content. The company is leveraging its partner network, including local governments, universities, dormitories for international students, and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, while generating excitement through reels, card news, and its information pages. The company is fostering community engagement by promoting offline networking events for program participants.
Currently, Girr is in talks for a partial equity investment and is looking to secure seed funding to enhance its marketing efforts and develop its AI services. CEO Lee said, “Through series A investment, we hope to win local government tourism projects throughout the country and reach 10,000 monthly active users on the app.”
What made CEO Lee decide to start a new company? “Many foreigners living in Korea lack information and local experience. I started the company to address this problem. For funding, we used incubation investment from the Incheon Tourism Organization, initial personal capital, and government support funding, and also reinvested project profits.”
Following the launch of the startup, said CEO Lee, “I felt a sense of accomplishment when we achieved a repeat participation rate of over 70% following the first tour and socializing event,” and added, “We’ve proven the value of our service through positive feedback from foreign participants, promoted local cities as global tourist destinations, and helped to revitalize local economies. That makes me proud.”
Regarding future plans, CEO Lee said, “We plan to achieve annual sales of 1 billion won within three years, commercialize our KoAI chatbot API and expand it globally, and carry out joint projects with more than 10 local governments across the country,” and added, “We want to establish ourselves as a global K-Lifestyle community brand.”
Date of Establishment: July 2022
Main Business: Travel/social programs aimed at foreigners, AI living information service, creation of tourism content
Performance: Selected to receive incubation investment from the Incheon Tourism Organization; plan to operate five tours of Jecheon and Danyang through BETTER-ri, the Korea Tourism Organization’s tourism population recharge program; launched exclusive community parties for foreigners at the Seoul Dragon City Hotel; selected for commercialization support by the Chung-Ang University Campus Town; currently developing the AI chatbot KoAI
reporter jinho lee
jinho2323@hankyung.com