Aswemake, a digital transformation solution provider for food ingredient marts, has caused massive losses to investors through false performance announcements and has entered restructuring.
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Aswemake announced that it achieved 32.27 billion won in sales and 8 billion won in operating profit in its 2025 regular settlement. It also claimed to possess 31.6 billion won in cash and cash equivalents. However, reporter Lee Ju-won pointed out that these performance reports were largely the result of complete fabrication.
Aswemake has operated various digital transformation solutions targeting medium-sized and food ingredient marts. Its flagship service was 'Q-Market,' an O2O platform connecting food ingredient marts with consumers. In addition, it provided several other services including Q-Market Partners, One Coupon, Jik, AllTalk, Hack Delivery, and Q-Matching.
According to PitchDeck, a startup data platform, Aswemake's sales increased by 237% in 2024 compared to 2023, and by 166% in 2025 compared to 2024. In 2025, it was reported to have achieved a high operating profit margin of 24.9%. These figures seemingly indicated that Aswemake was growing at a very rapid pace.
Aswemake's accounting manipulation was discovered during the financial due diligence process of an asset management company reviewing a new investment. During this process, several issues came to light, including the falsification of the audit report itself and the manipulation of financial statement supporting documents. Ultimately, the CEO admitted through a shareholder meeting that accounting manipulation had been ongoing since the third quarter of 2023 and resigned.
Financial due diligence for Venture Capital (VC) investments typically proceeds for amounts in the billions of won, but it does not reach the level of a formal audit by an accounting firm. Therefore, if a company submits an audit report with an accounting firm's stamp, VCs often fundamentally trust those figures and proceed with the investment. This creates a structural limitation where it is difficult for VCs to detect deliberate document forgery. Especially in startup investments, which are based on growth potential, there are limitations to precise verification of past figures.
Aswemake attempted to attract continuous investment by emphasizing excessive growth, such as achieving a 25% operating profit margin. However, this significantly widened the gap between actual performance and manipulated figures, which was eventually exposed during the audit process. This artificial inflation of figures was revealed to be a clear case of accounting fraud that betrayed investors' trust.
Aswemake's books recorded over 30 billion won in cash, but this was essentially an illusion existing only on paper. Internally, funding was drying up, and the company's flagship service, Q-Market, was heading towards collapse due to accumulated losses and depleted funds. Data analysis showed that despite massive marketing expenditures, actual performance was minimal.
Immediately after Aswemake's CEO resigned, the Q-Market service was terminated. This clearly demonstrated that the business did not secure a sustainable revenue model and operated entirely dependent on investment funds. Compared to large competitors like E-Mart and Lotte Mart, Q-Market lacked differentiation, and ultimately, the loss of business sustainability was confirmed with the CEO's resignation.
Facing the risk of losing all investment funds, Aswemake pursued four major self-rescue measures. First, it replaced the existing CEO and excluded them from decision-making. Concurrently, it carried out a large-scale restructuring, reducing the entire workforce by 60%. The company is completing the process for unsettled payments, transitioning to a cash-preserving B2B SaaS business, and seeking recovery by scaling down to profitability-focused business models such as delivery agency and marketing services.
While the company's management manipulated performance, executives and employees, who had little access to internal affairs, likely believed the company was operating well based on publicly announced figures. With the CEO's exclusive control of information and the absence of an internal monitoring system, employees performed their duties without suspecting accounting fraud, ultimately bearing the full brunt of the management's wrongdoing.
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