How Zico’s Company KOZ Entertainment Ended Up Becoming HYBE’s Subsidiary

Zico was a guest on MBC‘s Reveal My Star’s Life: The Manager. Here, he toured the crew around his office which happened to be inside the building belonging to HYBE.

Zico is the founder of KOZ Entertainment, one of HYBE’s subsidiaries. He explained how this partnership came to be after one of the hosts asked, “How did you come to join with HYBE?”

It turned that out that Bang Si Hyuk (PD Bang) himself, the chairperson of HYBE Corporation, was the one who approached Zico first. Their initial meeting occurred sometime in 2021.

It had been about 2 years since I established KOZ Entertainment. That’s when chairperson Bang Si Hyuk contacted me.

— Zico

Bang Si Hyuk was the one who tried to woo Zico and not the over way around. After he confirmed Zico’s drive as the company leader, he did not hesitate to offer support to the soloist.

He wanted to meet up so we met each other. That’s when he asked, ‘What do you want to do? With what purpose did you make your company?’ So I explained about all my plans.

— Zico

The older producer convinced Zico to join HYBE by pointing out his inexperience when it comes to leading a company. He stressed that being an artist is not the same as managing artists and so he will benefit greatly from having external support.

After listening to me, he said that I have sufficient qualities as a creator. But running a company can be a completely different field.

— Zico

Finally, Bang Si Hyuk sealed the deal by promising to integrate KOZ Entertainment into HYBE’s powerful ecosystem of companies, creating an “amazing synergy” that will help them both grow.

He said that we should be about to create amazing synergy within the big system of HYBE. And he said let’s do it together and I took it. That’s when we started being in the same boat.

— Zico

Check out the full video below to learn more about Zico.