[INTERVIEW] Student startup founder from Ghana shares his entrepreneurial journey in Korea

Starting an entrepreneurial journey as a foreigner in another country isn't easy, but it is possible when necessary support systems are in your hands.

Saabome Samuel Muobom, CEO of Rheogreen, talks during an interview with the Korea JoongAng Daily. [PARK SANG-MOON]

Starting an entrepreneurial journey as a foreigner in another country isn't easy, but it is possible when necessary support systems are in your hands.

"Korea is striving to be a mecca of startups, and in big major cities like Seoul or Daejeon, there are lots of startup incubators that exist," Samuel Muobom Saabome, a doctoral student at Seoul National University and CEO of Rheogreen, said. "When you look at investors' portfolios, they have a lot of Korean companies, but they are looking to expand the coverage to international startups."

"So I think the time is now."

Saabom is a student from Ghana, but now works with a team of three people for his startup, Rheogreen. Seeing an opportunity in Korea's ban on colored plastic bottles, his startup came up with a new technology that uses ultrasound waves to dissolve colorants and recycle colored plastic.

During his journey, one of the biggest help Saabom got was through the Promising Student Start-up Team 300 competition, an annual program organized by the Korea Entrepreneurship Foundation.

This is the first year a separate application track was created for international students in the competition, which offers mentoring for budding startups. Through the program, Rheogreen participated in a demo day for international students in November, winning the top prize at the event.

Although there are obstacles, such as being required to transition into a startup visa upon graduation and generating profit from the startup's technology, Saabom doesn't see it as a huge barrier.

"The government is looking into [integrating] student visas [with] startup visas, which is still an ongoing process but an initiative that the Korea Entrepreneurship Foundation is tirelessly [pushing]," Saabome said. "But things like that shouldn't stop international students from going [forward] with their ideas and startups."

The Korea JoongAng Daily recently sat down with Saabome to discuss his experience with startup support programs in Korea and plans for Rheogreen.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Q. You are from Ghana, but you are beginning your entrepreneurial career in Korea. Is there a reason you chose Korea?

A. When you look at the global startup ecosystem, Korea is among the top 15 countries with a high success rate and many emerging startups. It's ranked third in Asia, competing with big players like China and Singapore. I thought that was really impressive. What's fascinating is that Korea was globally ranked 14th for technology and patent-based startups. That's what I was trying to do, something based on technology and patents, and I thought this was the best place anywhere in the world to pursue my startup.

What was the experience participating in the Promising Student Start-up Team 300 program like, and how did it help Rheogreen?

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups has a grand challenge competition for startups in Korea, and essentially all participants have been Koreans. So the Korean Entrepreneurship Foundation decided to create a track where foreigners can get an opportunity to participate for the first time.

The foundation designed a program for us because, as foreigners, we don't know how the Korean startup ecosystem works. The foundation took us in and helped us learn how to establish a business model in a Korean way. We were also assigned exceptional mentors, coaching us through setting up business models and preparing us for the competition. We also had a networking day and mingled with other Korean startups and developed good relationships.

The other participants and I are very proud to be part of the maiden edition of the program, and I think it will open up more opportunities for foreigners to participate in the grand challenge.

Saabom talks during the demo day for international student startups in November. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

It sometimes takes work to access information about available programs for startups. How did you get to know about the program?

My first encounter with the Korea Entrepreneurship Foundation was through social media. I liked a picture from one of the government startup centers, and an employee from the Korea Entrepreneurship Foundation reached out and gave me information about the program. So I would say following government startup centers and platforms on social media is a very good way to get information. Also, every city and neighborhood has these startup support centers striving to create good programs and help foreigners. Your university or English media outlets will help you get information about those things as well.

There are other colored plastic recycling companies. What method does Rheogreen use to recycle colored plastics, and how does the technology compare to those of others in the market?

There are currently two ways of recycling colored plastics. The first one is depolymerization, and the second one is pyrolysis. Depolymerization uses synthetic chemicals to degrade the plastic, exposing the colorants and allowing people to separate them. Pyrolysis, put simply, is burning. But if you compare how much synthetic chemicals are used in the pre-and post-treatment process, along with the process of burning plastics, all of that generates greenhouse gases.

Rheogreen comes in with a greener approach, with a technology that sends ultrasound waves into plastics, which is what we call cavitation. This generates bubbles that can trap colorants. We use the ultrasound waves to dissolve those pigments and remove them from plastics.

Due to Korea's colored plastic bottle ban, companies that used to have their products packaged in colored plastics are now using clear plastic. With fewer colored plastic products, do you think there will still be a high demand for colored plastic recycling technology in Korea?

Right now, we're focused on removing color from plastic. But entirely taking out colors from the stream is not a good idea. For example, when you're buying a birthday gift for your loved one, you might expect the store to put it in colorful plastic packaging. Also, in the chemical world, we use colors to differentiate toxic chemicals. If you see a red bottle, that would be an immediate sign not to drink that. These colors are important and also make our lives beautiful.

In the long run, we want to produce bio-colorants that can be easily removed with small ultrasound waves and biodegradable dyes, unlike synthetic dyes. We also plan to make color-free plastic and use our technology to produce products with them. Currently, we are in talks with other startups that want to use recycled materials to make high-end, fashionable goods.

BY LEE TAE-HEE [lee.taehee2@joongang.co.kr]