19 January 2016 – NHN Entertainments have revealed their investment into Mocoplex, a company specializing in mobile advertising platforms. The motive for the investment was to strengthen NHN Entertainment’s capabilities in mobile advertising; a market which is experiencing tremendous growth. Once the investment of US$1.7m (KRW 2b) is finalized, it is likely NHN will proceed towards full acquisition. This investment will combine NHN Investment’s technical capabilities with Mocoplex’s various network capabilities…

Kongdoo Company, specializing in game MCN has succeeded in attaining a follow up Series B investment of US3.1m (KRW 3.6b) from Stic Investment, K Cube Ventures and Partner Investments. This investment comes within three months of the last investment in October of US1.7m (KRW 2b) investment from K Cube Venture and Partner Investments in October. The combined total recent investments are US$4.3m (KRW 5b). Established in March 2014, Kongdoo company is a…

Taggle is a photo management application which integrates hashtags (#), a term which is familiar to Instagram users to create an simple and efficient way to mange photos. The company is among 6 companies with early stage accelerating programs with Silicon Valley’s SOS Ventures.  Taggle through the ‘Chinaccelerator’ program has secured an investment of US$95k (KRW 110m). Taggle makes it easy to organize photos through a their daily reminder function GTD (‘Getting…

Jienem, a guesthouse accommodation service specialist and catering for Chinese tourists has received an investment of US$200k (KRW 240m) from Angel Club an Accredited Investor (AI). In August last year, the company also received an early stage investment from specialist China marketing company, ‘On China’. Jienem provides an easy accommodation booking service that allows users to select accommodation in the categories of fashion, glamping, traditional Korean house, lodges, and boutique guest houses….

China Da the operator of China Tan, a digital Chinese language teaching service has secured investment from Mirae Assets, Softbank Ventures and Coolidge Corner Investment. This investment is the second investment for China Da, which secured an initial investment last year from Nexplat Korea, Lake Investment, Softbank Venture and Coolidge Corner Investment. Within one year of launching, the number of users has increased each month by 20 per cent. In creating their educational content,…

Goldman Sachs, the global leader in investment banking is joining the list of foreign investors interested in Korean Startup. Goldman Sachs have invested a total of US$33m (KRW 38b) in ZigBang the leading real estate mobile application in Korea with a 70% market dominance. Following their launch in 2010, ZigBang secured a US$23m (KRW 27b) investment lead by Blue Run Ventures. This latest investment from Goldman Sachs will be used to towards…

Encored Technology has secured a US$10m (KRW 1.17b) investment from QSP which is run by Soros Fund Management. The company is a specialist in Internet of Things (IoT) and big data analysis with a particular focus on technology that assists in energy conservation. Encored Technology will utilize the investments towards developing their market presence in USA and Japan. A key factor for QSP in this investment was Encored Energy’s big data technology…

Cautious optimism abounds across Korea’s fast-growing startup scene. Following a national policy shift that has recognized the realities and opportunities of the present age, Korean entrepreneurial talent is finally receiving the level of public sector support needed for success. The export-oriented growth formula that helped Korean conglomerates drive economic development for decades following the Korean War is unlikely to continue its impressive historical returns, and the Park administration has sought to replace…

Withweb launched Withinnovation as a separate subsidiary in order to focus on the accommodation business. This strategic move seems to have worked given the company revealed on the 8th December that it had secured an investment of US$11m (KRW 13b) from Korea Investment Partners and Mirae Asset Venture investment. In April last year, Withinnovation began servicing the Korean motels with their O2O platform, GoodChoice (Korean ‘Yeo-Gi-O-Dae’ meaning ‘How is this place?’). In total,…

Nthing, a developer of Agriculture IoT (Internet of Things) that connects Plants to People has recently secured investment of US$1.7m (KRW 2b) from KDB Bank (Korea Development Bank). The aim for Nthing seems to be to connect all things ranging from ‘things to things’, ‘things to people’, and ‘people to people’. Their ‘plant to people’ connection solution is named Planty. Planty is a neat pot for plants that is just 170mm high…

2nd December 2015 – K Cube Ventures, investment specialists in mobile, internet and technology have invested US$690k (KRW 800m) into mobile game developer Affinity. Affinity is the developer of mobile game Historia. The Affinity team were specially brought together by Song In Su, the previous director of Joy City, who sought to bring individuals with success in creating popular games. The key team members have an impressive combined experience in creating popular…

Collaboration tool startup ‘collabee’ announces that it has received pre-Series A investment led by Mega Investment and joined by Venture Square.  The undisclosed investment was finalised in November, 2015.  This is their second investment after their initial seed investment from Mashup Angels in May. Collabee aims to disrupt the current market that’s come to be so largely populated by messenger (eg., Slack) and task (eg., Asana) based collaboration tools. Collabee utilises the…

Social Network, a specialist platform servicing Korean trends (wave) has secured an investment of US$4.3m (KRW 5b) from Korea Investment Partners, Mirae Asset Investment, POSCO technical investment and Intellectual Ventures. In 2012, Social Network secured their early stage investment of the same amount from Travel Doctor, Shinhan Bank and Hong Kong’s Evo Revo. The total amount for investment is now close to US$9m (KRW 10b). Productions from Social Network includes; Sketchup, the top…

Mr Pic the operator of used car O2O (online to offline) service ‘ChutCha’ has secured an investment of US$1.3 (KRW 1.5b) from KDB Industry Bank. This investment follows MrPic’s success in July after securing US$1.3m (KRW 1.5b) three way investment from East Gate Partners, DSC Investment and Song Hyun Investment. This brings the yearly investment total to US$2.6m (KRW 3b). Mr Pic, debuted ‘ChutCha’ in January 2015 and has amassed more than 300…

Zitko, a Korean health care wearable device startup has received US$1m (KRW1.2b) investment from IBK Capital and SBA (Seoul Business Agency). This investment follows a recent investment from ‘The Creation Investment’ to bring total for recent investments to US$1.7m (KRW 2b). Zikto is a healthcare product that monitors walking steps and corrects body posture. After releasing their ‘Zikto Walk’ on the 5th of October, the company has received praise for the product’s design…

Chinese Venture Capital (德同资本)company, DT Capital have followed other VCs in the recent trend for Korean beauty products, with an investments into B2Link. This is the fourth investment into the company following investments from DSC Investment in September last year and January this year and an investment from another Chinese company, KTM Network in September. DT Capital have an impressive investment portfolio in over 200 global companies. Since being recognized by Forbes as…

Baemin Fresh, a service dedicated to delivering the freshest food products has acquired ‘The Food’, Korea’s leading traditional side dish delivery service. Following the acquisition, the company announced that it will commence services in household convenience goods as of 23rd November. The Food commenced started in 2005 and since launching the traditional Korean side dish shopping mall has become the leader in this service. To date the company has fulfilled over 700…

‘포브스’가 최근 발표한 ’40대 이하 가장 부유한 미국 기업인 40명’에서는 ‘소셜네트워크와 공유경제 그리고 메신저’ 이 세 가지 키워드가 두드러졌다. 소셜네트워크는 사실상 페이스북의 독주 무대였다. 1, 2위를 차지한 마크 주커버거(순 자산 471억 달러, 한화 약 54조 원)와 더스틴 모스코비츠(약 97억 달러, 한화 약 11조 원)를 비롯하여 페이스북과 직간접적으로 관련된 인사까지 포함하면 무려 8명이 이 명단에 이름을 올렸다. 페이스북 이외에는 핀터레스트가 CEO인 벤 실버먼(Ben Silbermann)을 포함한 3명이 포함되어 있고, 트위터의 잭 도시(Jack Dorsey) 역시…

On the 23rd November, the acquisition of Padang, a service providing mobile beauty information in Korea (operated by Gentle Family) acquired by Vanity Trove of Singapore, a startup specializing in beauty related information and operation of contents community. Padang was founded by four members with the aim of providing information of beauty shops in Seoul including any promotions, appointments, location, additional information, and customer reviews. Since starting in April 2015, the company had…

On the 20th November, Birdview, the company behind ‘Hwahae’ Korea’s most popular mobile cosmetics app, revealed that it had been successfully acquired by the NICE group. Hwahae (Cosmetic Analyst) allows its users to easily recognize chemical and active constituents contained within each cosmetic product. The review of each cosmetic product is sorted by the skin type relevant to the user. Since its debut in July 2013, Hwahae has amassed more than 1.5…