Executive Summary

Many growth-stage and enterprise engineering teams in the US, EU and APAC want to hire South Korean engineers but are blocked by the cost and complexity of standing up a local entity, navigating Korean labor law, monthly payroll, 4대보험 contributions, severance (퇴직금), tax withholding and local banking — a problem that touches hiring managers, HR leaders and finance teams that collectively account for roughly 80,000 foreign-engineer hires in South Korea each year and an estimated $6.4B in all-in payroll spend at an average of $80,000 per hire. These teams face significant operational friction: contract localization, bilingual onboarding, statutory reporting, and reliable benefits administration, all under local compliance risk that many in-house teams are not equipped to manage. You could build a combined Employer-of-Record (EOR) plus localized payroll platform that bundles Korean statutory payroll automation, native-language employment contracts and benefits, bank/KYC facilitation, and open APIs to HRIS and accounting systems, with an AI-enabled compliance layer that continuously extracts and codifies changes in local labor rules. The product should include pre-built integrations to Korean payroll providers and insurers, SLA-backed compliance guarantees, and developer-friendly payroll APIs so engineering teams can automate hiring workflows without creating a local entity. This opportunity is particularly attractive now because remote-first hiring is accelerating geographic diversification of engineering teams, global EOR and payroll APIs have matured, and AI-driven compliance tooling can materially reduce legal bottlenecks; together these trends make a $6.4B addressable market accessible with modern platform economics. Competition is medium — global EORs have presence but often lack deep Korean payroll integrations or local-language service, while local PEOs lack API-first tooling — so timing favors a focused, product-led entrant. To stand out you’ll need three things: deep local integrations (real Korean payroll connectors and benefits partners), operational guarantees (indemnities or insurance to mitigate client legal risk), and bilingual, high-trust customer support for HR and finance teams; executing these will require capital to build local partnerships and underwriting capabilities and a disciplined compliance-first playbook. The biggest challenges are regulatory nuance, KYC and data residency constraints, and margin pressure from larger incumbents, but capturing even 1% of hires (≈800 placements/year) would validate the model and create a scalable recurring revenue base worth pursuing if you can meet those operational hurdles.

Market Opportunity

Hire South Korean engineers without a local entity — EOR + localized payroll targets a $6.4B = 80,000 foreign-engineer hires in South Korea annually x $80,000 average all-in cost per hire total addressable market with medium saturation and a year-over-year growth rate of 15-25% annual growth in cross-border hiring and EOR adoption.

Key trends driving demand: Remote-first engineering -- companies are location-agnostic and hunting talent in new geographies; EOR and payroll API maturity -- third-party providers expose payroll and benefits integrations as services; AI-enabled compliance automation -- NLP extracts local labor rules, reducing legal bottlenecks; Rising demand for Korean talent -- strong local STEM pipeline and competitive salaries vs Silicon Valley.

Key competitors include Deel, Remote, Globalization Partners, Papaya Global, Adecco / Traditional staffing & payroll agencies (e.g., Adecco, ManpowerGroup).

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Hire South Korean engineers without a local entity — EOR + localized payroll

Executive Summary

Market Validation

Market Opportunity

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