Korea Startup Ecosystem
SoftBank to Invest $1 Billion in Coupang, Korea’s Largest Online Retailer
2015년 06월 08일

SoftBank Corp. (“SoftBank”) and Coupang today announced a definitive agreement under which a subsidiary of SoftBank will invest $1 billion in Coupang, the largest and fastest growing standalone e-commerce player in Korea. The investment is expected to close at the beginning of July, 2015 and will bring the total amount of funding raised by Coupang over the past year to nearly $1.5 billion. This funding will fuel Coupang’s innovations in its end-to-end fulfillment service, same-day…

컴투스, 1,200억 규모 M&A를 통한 글로벌 진출 가속화 추진
  ·  2015년 05월 26일

컴투스가 대규모 유상증자를 통해 국내외 게임사 위주로 대규모 M&A를 진행할 예정이다. 지난 22일 금요일 장 마감 후 컴투스는 투자 자금 확보를 위해 1899억8000만 원 규모의 유상증자(277만9674주 유무상증자)를 결정했다고 공시했다. 예정 발행가는 11만8000원이고 신주 상장 예정일은 오는 8월 20일이며, 대표주관회사는 미래에셋증권이 맡고 있다. 컴투스는 이번 자금 확보를 통해 하반기 기업인수 합병에 나설 계획으로 게임사 인수나 투자에만 1,200억 원을 투입할 예정이다. 국내 및 해외 우수 게임 기업의 인수와 지분 투자 등으로 게임 IP(지적재산권)확보에 집중…

James Jung of beSUCCESS sheds light on Korean startup opportunities
2015년 05월 08일

beSUCCESS is doing for Korea what Tech in Asia is doing for other parts of Asia. The company is an online media about startups and tech investments in Korea. It introduces new Korean ventures to a global audience through its media partners. But beSUCCESS also shares business ideas and trends from all over the world. In an effort to serve the ecosystem, the company offers opportunities for Korean startups to meet partners and investors in Korea and…

SundayToz Initiates $30 Million USD ‘AniPang Fund’ To Support Startups
2014년 12월 22일

Korean gaming company ‘SundayToz’ and The Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Development and have created the ‘AniPang Fund.’ The fund will be aimed at startups in the following fields: Gaming, Social, digital content, platform based technology and contents based technology. The ‘AniPang Future Contents Investment Association’ will operate under the management of Smilegate Investment. While the fund will primarily focused on startups in Korea, a representative from SundayToz has confirmed that they are…

5 Myths About Asian Startups – The Importance Of A Global Perspective
2014년 12월 19일

[This article was originally published on Forbes] I was in Asia last week to attend a Demo Day for startups that participated in a two month acceleration program through DEV Korea where I serve as a principal. These companies had split their time between New York and Seoul in order to gain a global perspective that could be applied to their ventures while they were still in a formative stage. This is…

Korean Government Plans Easing of Fintech and IoT Regulations To Encourage Growth
2014년 12월 16일

As reported by Business Korea, the  Korean government recently announced that it plans to relax regulations on new innovation-driven industries, including as financial technology (fintech) and the Internet of Things (IoT). This is a positive regulatory signal for local startups in these industries that have struggled against regulation. It also bodes well for the new startup accelerator in Seongdo, that will run its first hardware / IoT / Smart home program in 2015. At…

Korean Tech Startups and SMEs Lost USD$5.6 Billion in Unprotected IP Between 2011 & 2013
2014년 12월 10일

According to the Korea Small Business Institute, small and medium enterprises running their own research institutes suffered from a technology outflow worth $5.6 billion between 2011 and 2013. The amount was equivalent to 58% of their R&D expenditures for the same period. The sales decrement caused by the tech leak was $2.27 million on average, or around 20% of annual sales. However, despite knowledge of the problem, most companies have not make…

beSUCCESS Talks With Tapjoy & 5Rocks About Their Recent Merger, And Ongoing Integration
2014년 12월 02일

  “The Core of Mobile Advertising is Demand Estimation” Tapjoy, the company that recently acquired 5Rocks talked with a beSUCCESS editor about their first jointly produced product. In August this year mobile game analytics company 5Rocks from Korea was acquired by USA-based mobile advertisement platform Tapjoy. With 14 overseas branches and 600 million users per month Tapjoy is the world’s largest mobile advertisement company. Complimenting this portfolio, ‘5Rocks’ is an exemplary mobile…

One of Korea’s Top Accelerators – KStartup
  ·  2014년 11월 30일

“The upcoming two years will be a defining point for the Korean startup ecosystem” KJ Byeon, KStartup Started as a pilot program in 2012, Kstartup officially launched in January 2013 and is now regarded as the biggest acceleration / incubation program in Korea. Supported by both Korean and American corporations (including Google, Banks Foundation for Young Entrepreneurs, and SK Planet), it focuses on early stage startups that aim to build global companies. Founders are…

One of Seoul’s Top Accelerators – DEV Korea
  ·  2014년 11월 29일

Another promising initiative is Digital Entertainment Ventures (DEV). Launched in New York in 2012, DEV focuses mainly on media, entertainment and platform businesses, and only recently expanded to Korea. According to Kaine Kim the Co-CEO of DEV Korea, Seoul seemed to be the most suitable place for setting up a new office within the Asian market. This is in part due to the growing support of the Korean government, and the President’s…

One Of Korea’s Top Accelerators – Sparklabs
  ·  2014년 11월 28일

“What separates us from other accelerators in Korea is the fact that we focus on global startups. You might say that everyone wants to go global, but startups in Korea are very focused locally.”                                                                                                                             Eugene Kim, SparkLabs Founded in December 2012, SparkLabs provides a small investment, mentoring and workspace in exchange for an equity stake in a company. The equity investment is equal to $25K and the equity stake…

One Of Korea’s Top Accelerators – Future Play
  ·  2014년 11월 28일

“We are trying to come up with a realistic solution to help startups to relocate overseas. We are going to completely reimagine what people have done so far. We are going to determine what startups truly need.”                                                                                                                           Steven Baek, FuturePlay Founded in early 2014, FuturePlay focuses on funding early-stage tech startups. The company believes that in order to understand the market properly and have a solid basis, a…

One Of Seoul’s Top Accelerators: The Ventures
  ·  2014년 11월 27일

“We think about ourselves more as a tutoring-based approach, a one-to-one approach”  Mark Tetto, The Ventures The Ventures was founded early in 2014 by Changseong Ho and Jiwon Moon, who formerly created Viki, a community-driven distribution platform for TV contents. The company was acquired last year by Japanese Rakuten for $200 million. The Ventures works very closely with startups for an un-specified period of time. Startups receive office space, mentoring and professional…

Here’s A Look At Seoul’s Top Accelerators, Unlocking Korean Startup Success
  ·  2014년 11월 21일

Seoul, with its rapidly growing startup ecosystem is gaining precedence as one of the most promising entrepreneurial hubs in the world. Home to two of the most influential global tech leaders, Samsung and LG, the perception of Seoul has traditionally been of a corporate hub. But this is now rapidly changing, as a new breed of tech startups rise and as the big boys begin to plateau. South Korea is now rapidly…

Korean Startups Are Hot This Year. Here’s a Look at The Top Accelerators Powering Their Success
  ·  2014년 11월 15일

Seoul, with its rapidly growing startup ecosystem, is gaining precedence as one of the most promising entrepreneurial hubs in the world. Home to two of the most influential global tech leaders, Samsung and LG, the perception of Seoul has traditionally been of a corporate hub. This is now rapidly changing, as a new breed of tech startups rise and as the big boys begin to plateau. South Korea is now rapidly moving…

Yello Mobile Announces $100M Investment From Formation 8, Achieves $1Bn Valuation
2014년 11월 11일

Yello Mobile has today announced an investment of just over $100M from Formation 8 Partners . The investment was made as a result of Yello Mobile’s opportunity to continue to grow into overseas markets. It is expected that the company will utilize Formation 8’s extensive networks and experiences from Silicon Valley, in order to lead the Asian mobile market in the future. Yello Mobile now have 50 ventures in their alliance, having…

Korean Security Startup ‘Lockin Company’ Promises High End Mobile Security For Startups
2014년 10월 29일

Lockin Company is a Korean ‘mobile application security company’ that has targeted smaller app developers who struggle to afford the more expensive app security services from larger providers. They have recently launched their cloud-based SaaS security service. How it works: App developers upload their package data with their application’s source code to Lockin’s cloud servers. the security layer is then added by Lockin’s technology and sent back to the developers, before being released…

This Korean Startup Is Capitalizing On K-Pop Fever, Attracts 1 Million Users in 7 months
2014년 10월 27일

In many countries KPop and other Korean cultural content, such as dramas and movies are all the rage. While much of this content is available on YouTube and services like DramFever and Viki, there is also a plethora of online music services tapping in to the popularity of KPop music. Beat Packing Company is a new startup in the space that aims to bring KPop to the world through their online music…

Softbank Ventures Assesses The Korean Startup Ecosystem
2014년 10월 25일

Softbank Ventures Korea is one of the most established and successful Venture Capital companies in Korea. Outstanding successes include Sundaytoz and Sunnyloft (acquired by Kakao), and there are dozens of other portfolio companies that are rising stars in the Korean scene. Softbank Ventures is a 100% subsidiary of Softbank Corp. in Japan and manages a $250M fund. The fund is based in Korea, but they take care of investments across Asia and…

Meet Yello Mobile, Aiming To Be Asia’s Top Mobile Platform Company [Part 2]
2014년 10월 24일

Only three years after the first acquisition Yello Mobile has raised $78M, is nurturing an alliance of 35 startups, is profitable to the tune of $1.5M per month and plans to IPO next year. This is surely one of the most exciting startup stories in Asia this year. Here is part two of a two part article about their founding story, growth, and ambitious plans for the future. Click here for part…