How one foreign entrepreneur is building a future in Korea — on his own terms

Acafo founder Casimir Agossouworks at his workplace, December 2025. Courtesy of Acafo

Each summer season, hundreds of worldwide college students throughout Korea step off the stage at commencement and right into a high-stakes countdown. With scholar visas ticking towards expiration, they discover themselves within the race to safe full-time employment in a aggressive job market.

For a lot of international graduates, the transition from campus life to a long-term profession in Korea is much extra difficult than they count on. Whereas some pursue conventional company jobs, others are looking for alternative ways to construct a future right here.

“There are numerous gifted foreigners in Korea,” stated Casimir Agossou, a startup founder initially from the West African nation of Benin. “The problem helps folks perceive the place they match finest and the way they’ll contribute.”

Agossou is the founding father of Acafo, a synthetic intelligence (AI)-based platform designed to assist worldwide job seekers higher perceive and navigate Korea’s employment panorama. Drawing from his personal experiences learning and dealing in Korea over the previous decade, he hopes the platform will help make the method much less overwhelming for different international graduates making an attempt to construct profitable lives within the nation.

This yr, Agossou joined the 2026 cohort of Asan Sanghoe, a prestigious startup program linked to the Maru startup ecosystem and the legacy of Hyundai founder Chung Ju-yung, who used “Asan” as a pen identify.

Acceptance to this system was greater than skilled recognition.

“This was truly my second time making use of to this system,” Agossou stated. “Getting accepted this time made the expertise much more significant. It jogged my memory that persistence issues and that progress typically occurs via repeated effort.”

Not like many individuals who first turned concerned with Korea via Ok-pop or Korean dramas, Agossou stated his curiosity started with curiosity in regards to the nation’s speedy financial improvement.

“I got here to comprehend that Korea was a really poor nation within the Fifties, and in round 50 years, it turned a really sturdy, developed nation,” he stated. “I wished to grasp the mindset behind that transformation.”

Acafo founder Casimir Agossou speaks throughout a job honest in October 2025. Courtesy of Acafo

The hole no one was filling

Agossou’s arrival in Korea in 2014 via the World Korea Scholarship (GKS) program introduced him to Kangwon Nationwide College in Chuncheon, Gangwon Province, the place he pursued graduate research in environmental science.

Upon ending his research, nonetheless, Agossou discovered that transitioning into Korea’s job market was not so easy.

“There was not a lot demand when it got here to a foreigner within the environmental sector,” he recalled. “I might work as a researcher however I didn’t prefer it. So I had nearly no alternatives.”

The breakthrough got here when he stopped concentrating on his main and began leveraging his precise belongings: trilingual fluency. His first actual provide got here from an organization promoting used vehicles, the place he was employed as an intern to deal with abroad consumers. It wasn’t glamorous, nevertheless it taught him one thing about how the Korean job market works — and doesn’t work — for foreigners.

“It’s not like I didn’t have abilities,” he stated. “I simply realized over time that I wanted to concentrate on alternatives the place my background and strengths had been a greater match.”

These experiences later helped form the course of Acafo.

Moderately than functioning as a standard job board, Acafo works via a abilities evaluation course of that maps a consumer’s background and skills to precise job classes with demand in Korea. The platform then supplies a transparent technique: what sorts of firms to focus on, how you can place oneself and what steps to take subsequent. Consider it as a GPS for international profession seekers — not a vacation spot, however a route.

“Earlier than somebody goes to a job board, they need to know: can I get this job or not?” Agossou stated. “We assist folks perceive what they create to the desk and the way they’ll place themselves.”

Acafo founder Casimir Agossou / Courtesy of Acafo

A brand new chapter in Korea’s startup ecosystem

Acafo additionally displays broader conversations going down inside Korea because the nation seems for methods to draw and retain extra world professionals amid demographic and labor challenges.

Casimir believes that stronger collaboration between establishments, firms and worldwide communities will play an vital position shifting ahead.

“Success in Korea is never a person effort,” he stated. “Particularly within the startup ecosystem, progress typically comes from collaboration, mentorship and the assist of the folks round you.”

His participation in Asan Sanghoe launched him to founders and mentors from quite a lot of industries — experiences which can be serving to him higher perceive Korea’s startup ecosystem and assume extra broadly about Acafo’s future.

“I joined this system with the expectation of studying how you can construct a stronger and extra scalable firm throughout the Korean ecosystem,” he stated.

Agossou added that he feels impressed by the legacy of the late Hyundai founder, whose story stays intently tied to the entrepreneurial spirit behind this system.

“I deeply admire the mindset of Chung Ju-yung — somebody who overcame adversity, noticed alternatives the place others noticed limitations and created affect past his personal era,” he stated.

Whereas startup packages typically culminate in pitch showcases and funding alternatives, Casimir stated his speedy focus stays on Acafo and making the platform accessible to extra customers.

“Each single foreigner has one thing to supply in Korea,” he stated. “The issue is they simply don’t know the place to seek out one of the best match. We need to take them from fully misplaced to absolute readability. Both it really works, or it really works.”

Go to acafo.io for extra data.

Alice Hong is a contract author and comic primarily based in Seoul. Observe @hippohong on Instagram.