Safehouse

What Safehouse does

Safehouse (안전가옥) is a Korean genre-specialized story production company (주식회사 안전가옥) headquartered in the Heyground Seongsu Start-up Hub in Seoul, South Korea. The company develops original story IPs from planning through completion, concentrating on horror, romance, SF/fantasy, mystery, and thriller categories, and serves three constituencies: (1) Korean MZ generation genre fiction readers via direct book retail through Aladin, Ridibooks, and book fairs; (2) media partners such as MBC, KBS, wavve, Watcha, Megabox Plus M, Podbbang, Ridibooks, and Bloomsbury Publishing, which license and adapt Safehouse IPs into webtoons, dramas, films, audiobooks, radio dramas, and English-language editions; and (3) emerging and established writers, sourced through recurring story contests and direct outreach, who collaborate with Safehouse's in-house story PD team on development-to-publication projects.

The company's core outputs include over 100 published book titles and themed anthologies, 20+ secondary-format IP adaptations reaching audiences in 10+ countries, and an active contest pipeline operated jointly with media partners. Technically, Safehouse is a content and services business, not a software platform: its only notable proprietary tooling consists of the internal "Nyumba" Slack chatbot (rule-based workflow automation that formats contract-request messages, updates Notion databases, and generates Google Drive documents) and the Safehouse Author Portal, a web service that surfaces royalty and settlement history to collaborating writers. There is no public API, SDK, or AI/ML capability in the product surface.

The business model combines three revenue streams: book publishing and retail sales (one-time purchase through Korean retailers), IP licensing and secondary-rights royalties (the highest-leverage stream, anchored by deals such as the Bloomsbury English-language deal for Chon Sunran's "The Night Visitor" and the export of "Exorcism Lady" to 9 countries), and contest-driven professional services run with media partners. Internally, the company operates with approximately 8 operational members using Slack, Notion, and Google Workspace, and a "chasing" vacation system of 5 days every 4 months. The company has raised documented cumulative equity of approximately 3 billion KRW across pre-Series A rounds in September 2021 (Watcha, ~1B KRW) and November 2022 (S2L Partners and DA Value Investment, ~1B KRW), with a claim on its recruitment page of cumulative institutional investment of 40 billion KRW that is materially inconsistent with rounds on file. In November 2024, Safehouse executed a debt-to-equity swap that reduced issued shares from 211,503 to 145,259 and capital from ₩1,057,515,000 to ₩726,295,000 to strengthen financial stability.

Name

Safehouse

Legal name

주식회사 안전가옥

Website

https://safehouse.kr

Company type

Private

Founded year

2020

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Safehouse is a Korean genre-specialized story production company (주식회사 안전가옥) in Seoul that develops original horror, romance, SF/fantasy, mystery, and thriller IPs from planning through publication and secondary adaptation into webtoons, dramas, films, audiobooks, and English-language editions.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Seoul

HQ country

South Korea

HQ region

Asia

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Technology or R&D, Others

Revenue model

1. Book Publishing and Sales: Safehouse publishes genre fiction through traditional book publishing, selling single copies through bookstores and online retailers. Revenue comes from book sales through distributors and direct partnerships with retailers like Aladin and Ridibooks.
2. IP Licensing and Secondary Rights: The company develops story IPs and licenses them for adaptations into film, TV dramas, webtoons, audiobooks, and radio dramas. Works have been adapted through partnerships with MBC, wavve, KBS,ridibooks, Podbbang, and other media companies.
3. Story Contests and Development: Safehouse organizes story contests with partner companies (Watcha, Megabox Plus M, Kakao Page, Ridibooks) offering prize money totaling tens of millions of won, with winning works considered for publishing and adaptation.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Safehouse is a genre-specialized story production company that develops original story intellectual property from planning through completion in collaboration with writers. It publishes individual books and themed anthologies across horror, romance, SF, fantasy, mystery, and thriller genres, and licenses the resulting story IPs for adaptation into webtoons, dramas, films, audiobooks, and audio films through partnerships with Korean media companies and international publishers.

Product overview

Safehouse is a genre-specialized story production company (콘텐츠 프로덕션) that operates across multiple layers: publishing individual books and anthologies through its story contest programs, and extending those IPs into webtoons, dramas, films, audiobooks, and audio films through IP adaptation projects. The company also develops internal tooling including an author portal (안전가옥 작가 포털) for royalty tracking and a Slack chatbot called Nyumba (늄바) for automating publishing contract workflows. With over 100 book titles published and 20+ secondary media adaptations, Safehouse positions publishing not as an end point but as the starting point of an IP lifecycle.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Quantifiable outcome

• NPS score of 50.8 from reader survey with 57.1% 'superfan' readers
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers1 record

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature2 records

Partnerships

17 partnerships are on record, tiered minor and core.

• KBSminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 March 2023Safehouse partnered with KBS and KiiST for the 'Romance Dopamine' story contest in March 2023.
• Semi-colon StudiocoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 February 2023Safehouse and Semi-colon Studio signed a business agreement for joint film planning and development in February 2023.
• MindmarkcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2023Safehouse and Mindmark signed an MOU for joint source IP planning and development collaboration in January 2023.
• Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BIFAN)minorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 April 2022Safehouse partnered with BIFAN in 2022 to strengthen the 'Goidae Campus' (Ghost Story Campus) project.
• WatchacoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 March 2022Watcha and Safehouse ran a joint story contest 'Double Life' in 2022 with total prizes of 63 million KRW across 3 categories. Winning works considered for webtoon and film adaptation.
• Kakao PageminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 February 2021Safehouse participated in Kakao Page's 'Next Page' 7th season new writer discovery project in February 2021.
• StorywizminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 December 2020Storywiz partnered with Safehouse for IP planning and development MOU signed in December 2020.
• Megabox Plus McoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 March 2020Megabox Plus M and Safehouse partnered for multiple story contests including 'Super Minority Hero' and 'New Love' themes in 2020-2021, with winning works considered for film and drama adaptation.
• MBCcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerMBC partnered with Korean Film Directors Guild and wavve for the SF8 anthology series. Safehouse's '우주인, 조안' was adapted into the SF8 cinematic drama series.
• wavvecoreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorOTT platform wavve partnered with MBC and Korean Film Directors Guild for SF8 anthology series. Safehouse stories adapted and distributed through wavve platform.
• Korean Film Directors GuildcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerKorean Film Directors Guild partnered with MBC and wavve for SF8 anthology series production. Safehouse stories adapted for cinematic drama format.
• RidibookscoreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorRidibooks serves as the primary e-book publishing platform for Safehouse. Partnership includes anthology contests and webtoon adaptations through Ridibooks' '끝을접다' platform.
• PodbbangminorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorAudio content platform that partnered with Safehouse for audiobook contests. 2019 'Podbbang x Safehouse Audiobook Contest' produced winning horror stories as audio films.
• Take1minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerFilm production company for '뒤틀린 집' (Twisted House) movie adaptation of Safehouse's horror novel.
• Story1minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerProduction partner for '뒤틀린 집' (Twisted House) movie adaptation.
• Bloomsbury PublishingcoreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorUK publisher (Harry Potter publisher) that licensed 천선란's '밤에 찾아오는 구원자' (The Night Visitor) for English-language publication in the UK and international markets.
• Azak (아작)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerSF-specialized publisher that partnered with Safehouse for the '2019 Azak x Safehouse Polaris Workshop' for SF short story creation.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Market position

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/safehouse_kr
• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UC5Dcz_Cht-NjZAwpNU65m0Q
• Instagraminstagram.com/safehouse.kr
• Facebookfacebook.com/safehouse.kr
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/safehousekr

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds2 records

Investors3 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Safehouse