Coupang, a leader in next generation e-commerce based in Seoul Korea, has raised $100 million in financing led by Sequoia Capital, with participation by existing investors Greenoaks Capital Management, Rose Park’s Disruptive Innovation Fund and LaunchTime. This investment comes at a time when rumours about a possible IPO at some point in 2015 abound in the local Korean startup ecosystem, and follows in the same week that Korea’s other ‘mega-startup,’ Kakao Corp….

I have been following the story of Kakao Corp closely over the last two years and its been an interesting ride so far, due to get much more so with the merger announced this week on betech.asia. While ‘many’ are confused about the benefits of a rising Kakao merging with Daum Communications, an internet portal in decline, I believe that there are a few key factors that ‘many’ are missing. Kakao Corp. – A Brief Intro: Kakao Corp…

StyleShare CEO Jayoung Yoon is only 25 years old, but has built a formidable fashion and style platform and has just secured a further $2.5M to expand her vision globally. This series B investment from LB Investment follows a seed round from Primer (20M KRW), and a seed round from Suprema & the founder of Daum ($08.M). StyleShare as a mobile fashion contents platform that allows users to share what they are…

Over the last year collaboration between the startup ecosystems in North and South Asia has seen greatly increased velocity as resources come together to enable the rising tide in Asian entrepreneurship to accelerate. And in recent days Joyful Frog Digital Incubator (JFDI), an accelerator based in Singapore, and the Banks Foundation for Young Entrepreneurs (Banks Foundation) a community centre for Korean entrepreneurs in Seoul, have announced a partnership. This formal collaboration aims to…

Top Asian VCs with Global Impact Panel Saemin Ahn (Managing Partner of Rakuten Ventures) Saemin Ahn (“Sae”) is the Managing Partner at Rakuten Ventures. Prior to Rakuten Ventures, Sae was at Google for 5 years from 2008 to 2013 managing Sales and Business Development for Asia. Along with writing in spare time, having been named one of Quora’s 2013 Top Writers, he has made investments ranging from C2C marketplace, payment infrastructure technology…

Soujanya Bhumkar, Coolris CEO, will speak at this years beLAUNCH conference, Korea’s premier start up and tech event. The explosion of the selfie has become part of creating a new type of human experience and  Cooliris believes in augmenting the impact of these snaps, through personal media which is shared privately. Coolris was founded on the core principal of improving the user experience when browsing media and information on the web.  From…

The much awaited global launch of Samsung Galaxy S5 missed its launch date. The launch planned on 11th April, was not delayed, but started selling 2 weeks ahead of schedule. This was pulled off by Samsung’s telecom and distribution partners in Korea – SK Telecom and KT. SK Telecom was the first to start selling the device on Thursday 27th March. Later, KT also decided to start selling, as it did not…

Since 2011, PatiGames has been making Korean Mobile Applications. This is a review of their game I love Coffee. In the game, you serve customers coffee, clean up and even make coffee. It runs kind of like Diner Dash. The concept is actually quite good and it has the potential to be a great game. The Good This game has a wonderful graphic interface. It is reminds me of the gameboy interface….

With the launch of a large-screen smartphone-tablet hybrid on Thursday, LG Electronics is attempting to achieve an ambitious goal:  regain the No. 3 spot in the global smartphone market place. It may be a long shot. Last month, Chinese PC maker Lenovo announced plans to buy Google’s Motorola Mobility handset unit for $2.9 billion. There has been a lot of coverage in the press about the recent Lenovo-Motorola deal, but internally LG has been focusing on boosting their own…

Noom, Inc., the creator of fun and easy-to-use health and wellness apps, announced today that it has closed a $7 million Series A round of funding led by New York-based RRE Ventures with participation from TransLink Capital, Scrum Ventures, Recruit Group Japan, Qualcomm Ventures and Harbor Pacific Capital. RRE’s Jim Robinson IV will join the company’s board. “Noom has designed a comprehensive mobile weight loss program complete with guidance and motivational support…

Having achieved 18M downloads and the number 1 spot in 20 countries back in 2009 with Oven Break, the company’s first release, Korean game developer Devsisters has just released their global follow-up, Cookie Run, on the Line games platform. Despite early success with Oven Break, they struggled to maintain momentum and effectively withdrew from the global market, choosing to focus on their home turf in Korea. This was due struggles in maintaining…

While many believe that the USA leads the world in innovation, with Silicon Valley as the heart of everything, there are other nations that are making an impact. Bloomberg recently conducted a survey of 215 countries to determine their ‘Innovation Quotient’ and ranked South Korea as number 1 in the world for 2013. South Korea has achieved phenomenal economic growth over the last four decades, and is now is a position globally…

beSUCCESS, Korean startup media organization, events organizer, and global connector is happy to officially announce that their flagship startup event, beLAUNCH, is back in 2014 in a year that is already heating up to be one of the most promising for Korean, Asian, and Global entrepreneurship. The event will be held May 14 – 15 at the brand new Dongdaemun Design Plaza in the heart of Seoul. In addition, this year there…

South Korea’s tech giants are battling it out at this week’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, promoting their cutting-edge “smart” products. A total of 3,200 global players will showcase at one of the largest tech shows on earth Jan. 7-10, demonstrating how they aim to change our digital future. First round seems to have gone to Samsung, with their Smart Home solutions, which have out-shone LG’s Smart TVs, for now….

아침에 눈을 뜬 당신, TV를 켜서 뉴스를 볼까, 신문을 읽을까 잠시 고민이 된다. TV를 켜서 내가 관심없는 소식들을 전해듣기는 싫고, 신문을 펼쳐 읽기는 또 귀찮게 느껴진다. 이런 당신을 위해 두 마리 토끼를 모두 잡을 수 있는 해결책이 여기있다. 위비츠(Wibbitz)는 웹(Web) 기사에서 작은 뉴스 토막(Bit)을 모아 당신만을 위해 기사를 읽어주고, 눈이 심심하지 않도록 관련 사진자료들도 함께 보여준다. 이만하면 개인 전담 아나운서라고 할 수 있지 않을까? 위에 제시한 아침의 상황은 위비츠의 공동창업자 조하르가 위비츠를…

SparkLabs Global Ventures is launching a new $30 million seed-stage fund that will invest in early-stage companies looking to rapidly scale their innovations. The founding partners are Bernard Moon, Net Jacobsson, Frank Meehan, Jimmy Kim, John Lee, and Jay McCarthy.  Bernard, Net and Frank will be the primary operating partners. “SparkLabs Global Ventures was founded on our strong momentum from our SparkLabs accelerator in South Korea, where we have already invested in 16…

조중동, 한겨레, 오마이뉴스, 경향 신문, 뉴데일리, 한국일보, 미디어오늘, 머니투데이, 프레시안, 매일경제, 한국경제, SBS, 노컷뉴스, MBC, 위키트리, 전자신문, 시사인, ZDNet Korea, 블로터닷넷, 연합뉴스, 파이낸셜뉴스, 아이엠피터, 스포츠서울, KBS, YTN, 뉴시스, 서울경제, 이데일리, 서울신문, 스포츠동아, 세계일보, 내일 신문, 코리아헤럴드, 10 아시아, Tech IT!, beSUCCESS, 디지털타임스, 문화일보, 한겨레21, pxd, 딴지일보, Platum, 코리아타임스, 아시아경제, IT World, 스포츠한국, 스포츠월드, 스포츠경향, WSJ, 경인일보, 아이뉴스, 마이데일리, 코리아헤럴드(한글), Trend Insight, 등등  요즘 참 먹고 살기 바쁘다. 하지만 세상 돌아가는 일도 놓쳐서는…

KT has recently announced that it will launch a Korea-Japan Wi-Fi automatic roaming service. The service will enable KT customers to use NTT DoCoMo’s Wi-Fi network if they go to Japan, with the same deal reciprocated for NTT DoCoMo’s clients in Korea. To date users have had to enter a user ID and a password to log on to wireless networks overseas. The automatic roaming service, however, will allow users to enjoy…

According to new research by Strategy Analytics, Samsung continues to hold the largest market share of global Smart TV shipments, occupying 26 percent of the market, as vendors attempt to combat falling average selling prices (ASPs) of Flat Panel TVs (FPTVs) by adding premium features that better match evolving viewing habits. The Strategy Analytics Consumer Home Devices (CHD) service report, “Global Smart TV Vendor Market Share Q1 2013,” indicates that global Smart…

*This is part III to the series on Korea’s cybersecurity issues. We all know that security is a vital investment for survival. In this article, I will cover: Issues involving China; Issues involving North Korea; Their implications; Evolution of cyberattacks, and APT; Korean government’s plans; and Reactions to those plans. For Korea, the biggest concerns are ‘Chinese and North Korean hackers’. Some may remember the attack on the U.S. by Chinese hackers who succeeded…