PRODUCT
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…

Opportunities And Threats In Korea’s Blossoming E-Commerce Market
2014년 12월 15일

Social Commerce In Korea Is A hot Topic These Days With Coupang’s Recent $300 Million USD Fundraise – Here’s a Review of the Market from our friends at Business Korea. In May 2010 social commerce arrived in Korea, thanks to local player, TMON. In the same year two other local players also started operations, Coupang and. Four years later, three companies are still operating at a loss, engaged in fierce competition. Coupang has…

Chinese Language Education Company Chinada secures $1 Million USD from Soft Bank Ventures
2014년 12월 15일

Based in Seoul, Chinese language education company CHINADA have secured $1 million USD from Soft Bank Ventures and Coolidge Corner Investment. Their digital educational program ‘Chinatan’ is unlike other typical systems that focus on grammar and reading. Instead it is aimed towards improving conversational skills. It simulates real life situations, such as markets, restaurants, university campus, hotels, etc. This allows students to experience day to day situations experienced by locals. To build…

Yellow Mobile’s Location-Based SNS ‘1km’ Targets Global Market With International Version
2014년 12월 12일

Yello Mobile’s location-based SNS ‘1km’ has announced the launch of their international version, which now supports ten different languages including English, Chinese, Spanish, and Thai. Riding the current of ‘Korean-Wave’, they are targeting South-east Asian and Latin American countries, which are hotspots for Korean popular culture. There is a long term plan to expand their global coverage further in the future. The app, which uses GPS to connect people within a 1km…

Coupang, Korea’s Top E-Commerce ‘Startup’ Closes $300 Million USD From BlackRock
2014년 12월 11일

“We want to be the Amazon of Korea. We are the largest online retailer here, and we’re one of the most well-funded tech companies in Korea.” CEO of Coupang, Bom Kim in an interview with Forbes To accelerate this growth Coupang has just announced another huge funding round, worth $300 million USD, from BlackRock Private Equity Partners. This follows fast on the heals of another $100 million USD round led around five months…

Couples App ‘Between’ Hits 10 Million Global Downloads, Celebrates Three Years In Operation
2014년 12월 10일

Two weeks after the third anniversary of founding Between, the world’s largest social network for couples, has hit a major milestone, achieving 10 million global downloads. Since launching 3 years ago, Between has enjoyed 100% year-on-year growth. What is perhaps even more encouraging is that in 2014, much of this growth came from overseas markets, such as Japan, Taiwan and Southeast Asia. Japan hit its 1 million local downloads earlier this year,…

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…

KakaoTalk Answers User Concerns Over Privacy, Adds ‘Secret Chat’ Function
2014년 12월 09일

Perhaps in response to user concerns around privacy, Daum Kakao has just introduced ‘Secret Chat’ mode and ‘Decline Invites’ features for their KakaoTalk messenger, adding a higher level of privacy to the service. The new features provide users with increased options on how communications are carried out – and with whom. Secret Chat mode is a new type of chatroom that employs end-to-end encryption on all messages exchanged within the chatroom. The…

CEO of Baedal Minjok Talks About How He Raised $36 Million From Goldman Sachs [Part 2]
2014년 12월 09일

This is part two of this story. Part 1 here In 2010 when Bong-jin Kim left’ Naver’ (Korea’s primary online search portal), he had no idea about Venture Capital or ‘Exit’. Additionally, he had no interest in global expansion. He built his startup to focus on solving ‘small issues that Koreans face in their daily lives’. Yesturday we discussed how he raised his first three rounds of funding. Today we look at how…

CEO of Baedal Minjok Talks About How He Succeeded In Raising $36 Million From Goldman Sachs [Part 1]
2014년 12월 08일

In 2010 when Bong-jin Kim left’ Naver’ (Korea’s primary online search portal), he had no idea about Venture Capital or ‘Exit’. Additionally, he had no interest in global expansion. He built his startup to focus on solving ‘small issues that Koreans face in their daily lives’. That is how Baedal Minjok started. But recently his ‘startup’ raised $36 million USD from Goldman Sachs. He concluded, “if a person like me who had…

China’s Tencent Opens Its Doors To Korean Gaming Comapnies
2014년 12월 03일

We reported recently that Chinese investors have been making inroads into Korea. Now we are seeing the first signs of what fruits those investments are likely to bear. As reported by Business Korea, Korean gaming companies are beginning to target the Chinese mobile gaming market, in partnership with Tencent. In a new trend for the Chinese internet giant, Tencent is now actively opening its doors to Korean companies interested in entering the…

Korean eBook Store Ridibooks Just Raised $8 million In Series B investment
2014년 12월 03일

eBook store ‘Ridibooks’ just announced an $8 million investment from Neoplux, Atinum Investment, Company K Partners, and Mirae Asset Ventures. Ki-sik Bae, a representative from Ridi Corporation has gained notoriety in the local publishing market as he has consistently been dedicated to returning around 75% of the profits from sales on his platform to the writers since 2008. This was around the time that the first iPhone was released. During a previous…

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…

Korean Delivery App, Baedal Minjeok, Secures USD36 Million From Goldman Sachs
2014년 11월 27일

It has been announced in Korean media this morning that the country’s leading food delivery service (Baedal minjeok) has secured funding of USD36 million from Goldman Sachs. JaeHyun Lee, in charge of the Korean investmnet said: “Korea is a very exciting market for e-commerce and we are excited to be partnering with Baedal Minjeok, to help them solidify their position in Korea and expand into new markets.” Kim BongJin, CEO of Baedal…

Birdview Raises $600k from CyberAgent Ventures and Bon Angels To Bring You Even More Korean Beauty Information
2014년 11월 26일

Birdview (HwaHae in Korean), a cosmetics and beauty focused startup in Seoul recently announced that they have around $600k from Bon Angels Venture Partners of Korea and Cyber Agent Ventures of Japan. Birdview was founded by three High school alumni, Woong Lee (CEO), Yong-jin Kim (CPO), and Woo-hyun Chang (CMO) during their college years. The company has developed a mobile app ‘Hwa-Hae’ (meaning reconciliation in Korean) which provides cosmetic brand information, precisely analyzes…