Macho Youth Accelerates NXC Business Expansion with Acquisition of Brothers Keeper

- CEO Kim Hana Inaugurated... Launch of New B2B "Gardeners" Service and Gardener-Training Program for Youth Preparing for Self-Reliance
- Strengthening the "Save People & Save Nature" Vision of Connecting People and Nature Through Plants

Macho Youth, a nature-technology-experience combined NXC (Nature Experience Commerce) based plant-interior, landscaping, and biophilic design group led by CEO Kim Kwangsoo, announced that in February 2026 it completed the acquisition (M&A) of a stake in the social enterprise Brothers Keeper and incorporated it as a subsidiary. Moon Jiyeon, Head of Investment at Korea Education Group Co., Ltd., took full command of and finalized the entire M&A process, and in tandem with this, Brothers Keeper shifted to a new management system with the official inauguration of professional manager and CEO Kim Hana.

This acquisition is a strategic decision to combine a social value model with the people-centered nature-experience business that Macho Youth has been pursuing, and the two companies will jointly expand education, employment, and service businesses that place youth preparing for self-reliance at their core.

In particular, the two companies will jointly launch a new brand, "Gardeners (GARDEN EARTH) Vol.2," which combines an education program that trains youth preparing for self-reliance as professional gardeners with B2B plant-care services for corporate clients and in-house flower-shop and banquet-flower services. Gardeners Vol.2 features an in-house flower-shop model and regular plant-care services in which youth preparing for self-reliance participate directly in operations, thereby supporting both corporate ESG management and employee welfare.

Brothers Keeper is a pioneering company that first proposed and popularized the term "youth preparing for self-reliance" and has been regarded as a leading firm in the field of youth self-reliance support within Korea's social-enterprise ecosystem. Based on its experience operating retail and F&B outlets, it has built programs that create real jobs and connect to entrepreneurship, and with this acquisition it will focus its business domain on a specialized social-business model centered on plants and nature.

Kim Kwangsoo, CEO of Macho Youth, who also serves as an advisor on public landscaping for the Seoul Metropolitan Government, a member of the organizing committee of an international garden expo, and chair of the Korea Plant Space Design Association, said, "The acquisition of Brothers Keeper is an important turning point that expands the direction we have pursued of saving people and nature into a concrete business model," adding, "By adding Brothers Keeper's social value and its education system for youth preparing for self-reliance to Macho Youth's NXC model, which combines nature, technology, and experience, we will build a virtuous cycle in which gardeners who have gone through a meaningful process directly manage and maintain highly complete spaces. This will not be simple space management, but a new operational model that also embodies the social value of human growth."

He continued, "Macho Youth has been designing memorable experiences through space and content, while Brothers Keeper has been designing people's lives and self-reliance. Through the combination of the two companies, we will fully roll out consulting services for corporations that integrate ESG management and space, simultaneously enhancing youth self-reliance, regional revitalization, and environmental sensitivity."

Kim Hana, CEO of Brothers Keeper Co., Ltd., said, "The collaboration with Macho Youth is an evolutionary process that combines space design and brand strategy with our support model for youth preparing for self-reliance," and added, "We will expand our education and business so that more young people can grow into professionals through plants and nature as a medium and achieve self-reliance through stable jobs, thereby realizing sustainable social value in which education not only becomes experience but also leads directly to employment."

Going forward, the two companies plan to jointly develop youth job-creation initiatives linked to idle-space and urban-regeneration projects, data-based plant-care services, and customized ESG space solutions for corporations.

Macho Youth Co., Ltd. has recently carried out numerous projects in commercial and public sectors, including Seoul City Hall, Seoul Gallery, Starfield, Starfield COEX Mall Byeolmadang Library, Galaxy Corporation, and public-site design for an international garden expo, showcasing nature-centered experience design. It is leading the industry with a differentiated spatial strategy that combines biophilic design, local collaboration, and immersive technology.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.