This article gives a round-up of recent news from the Korean startup and tech environment. Please feel free to suggest updates and additional news. If you want to check out Korea for yourself, we suggest coming to Seoul, May 14-15, for beLAUNCH, Korea’s top tech and startup event. While the event is based in Korea we welcome startups from across the world and have secured a top line-up of global speakers who…

Coinplug, one of Seoul’s foremost bitcoin startups has just announced that they have raised a second round of funding from Silicon Valley VCs, to the tune of $400k. This replicates a funding round that the company received just last November for the same amount. What is also impressive is that both rounds have come from Silicon Valley based Investors, a once rare occurrence for Korean startups. This story also follows news we…

In January in Davos, Switzerland, South Korea’s first female President, Park Geun-Hye pushed forward with a multi-billion “Creative Economy” policy. Although Korea has seen a great rise in GDP and living conditions in the last 50 years, President Park now believes the current economic growth environment in Korea has reached its limit, and just like startups often need to, she has decided to pivot the Korean economy to embrace innovation as a…

  Pantech is saved from bankruptcy again and is instituting the second debt workout plan in the past 8 years. Pantech is the #3 Korean mobile phone manufacturer. The loss of Pantech in the Korean market would have been a loss in critical competition. What it needs? It needs creativity and innovation and a better financial manager. As a current Pantech phone user, it is actually a good quality phone. The problem…

WIV Labs, a data & social analytics startup which received almost $1M early stage investment from K-Cube Ventures and SMBA (Korean Government), today announced the beta launch of its social Q&A service Qaster (qaster.com). Qaster is the first and only service to archive questions and answers from the 500 million messages generated on Twitter daily. The company aggregates this data and allows users to search through its website. Qaster makes useful Q&As…

A Google spokesperson has reached out to TechInAsia who also posted this news, and pointed out that “it hasn’t done or offered any of the things described in this post.” References  were initially sourced from ZDnet Korea (http://www.zdnet.co.kr/news/news_view.asp?artice_id=20140219145110). They have since taken down the articles used as reference for this article. We apologize for the inaccuracy of this post. Korea has long been a brand-obsessed shopping nation. Now Google aims to assist up-and-coming app…

The application period for JFDI’s next session is open, but only for a few short days, before decisions are made about which founders will join the program this time around. Apply here now. In the past year JFDI has worked with 19 teams from all over Asia and as program Director, Ray Wu, looked back on his experience leading entrepreneurs he realized the importance of what JFDI is doing to build the startup community in…

On December 20th we announced that Korea’s top social networking service for couples had launched V2.0 of their service. This followed with news from Japan on February 4th that the App had hit the number one spot in the social category. And Now a third momentous announcement within two months: Between has now added Japan’s DeNa as a strategic investor to build on recent success and the current trend towards ‘platforms’ that…

According to a recent article on Forbes, and indeed my own insight from having worked very closely with Korean startups over the years,  “A new start-up powerhouse is on the horizon – South Korea”. While the US, Israel, and Europe have long led global innovation in the tech industry there is excitement in the startup ecosystem in Korea, with a number of highly notable stories emerging. What is also encouraging is that where…

Korean startup Coinplug has closed an investment round paid partly in bitcoin. This news comes shortly after another Korean Bitcoin startup, Korbit, also raises $400k from a dream team of Silicon Valley investors, as reported by beSUCCESS here. Coinplug raised $400,000 from Cupertino-based fund SilverBlue, with half the amount raised in bitcoin and the rest in fiat currency. The startup plans to launch a digital currency exchange, wallet and merchant platform in Korea in mid-December….

Originally posted on TechCrunch Moms feeling guilty about baby-spamming Facebook with their child’s photos and their every precious moment now have a more private alternative for those updates, thanks to a new mobile social network called Smile Mom. The app, which is designed to connect moms with others nearby, has already grown to 14,000 users during its beta testing phase. The founders behind the new app are formerly of Paprika Lab, a…

It has never happened before that a Korean startup has been able to secure early stage funding ($400k in this case) from such a high profile Silicon Valley investor line-up. The news that Korbit has achieved this momentous step heralds the start of a year that has already been billed as having the best potential ever, for Korean startups. While the value of the investment may seem small by Silicon Valley standards,…

Kakao Talk remains the premiere platform to access the exceptionally lucrative Korean gaming market, with examples such as the wildly popular `Angry Birds’ (coming soon) and `Candy Crush Saga’ (already available) among many other titles on the platform. KakaoTalk has emerged as the key channel for overseas game companies’ in Korea. Preparations are well under way for the release of Angry Birds in Q3 2013. It has also been rumored that EA…

  Who better to discuss current & future investment opportunities in Asia than three venture capitalists based in The US, with Korean roots? Eric Kim, Tae HeaNahm and Han Kim all have extensive knowledge about investing in Asia/Korea and have many success stories resulting from their combined portfolios in the region. They will be sharing their insights on a panel discussion at beGLOBAL. Tae HeaNahm is a founding general partner of Storm…

One of the leading app developers in Korea, Malang Studio, won second place at the 2013 National Mobile Application Competition held August 24-25 in Beijing, China. Malang Studio was the only non-Chinese finalist and winner at the event, which was open mainly to local Chinese app developers. Last month we wrote about Malang Studio, creators of the popular alarm app, AlarmMon, and it’s heavy focus on gamification, something that seems to be…

Stuck at work doing overtime, and not able to get home to feed your pet? No need to worry, just pick up your smartphone and at the press of a button you’re able to dispense food from SinglePet’s hardware at home. The service even allows pets and their owners to interact through a live video stream direct to a mobile handset, whenever and wherever they are so that you easily can check…

Ascent Ventures Partners에서 십여 년간 클라우드 비즈니스를 전문적으로 분석하고 투자를 담당해온 Matt Fates가 전하는 이야기 축하한다. 당신은 방금 당신의 스타트업의 신선한 자금줄이 되어 줄 투자자로부터 투자받는 데 성공했다. 하지만 당신은 그럴 만한 준비가 되어있는가?새롭게 들어온 자금을 어디에 써야 할지, 팀원들과 어디에 집중해서 회사를 이끌고 가야 하는지에 대해서 투자받은 CEO가 이미 더 잘 알고 있을 것이다.그런 것들을 모두 제외하고, 투자받은 직후 3개월 내로 스타트업이 해야 할 10가지 일을 알려드리고자 한다.    1. 자축하라 호화롭지 않게…

Founded in March, 2012, K-Cube Ventures made a big first step by investing in 6 startups within 4 months of its start. What do we need for a growing the Korean startup ecosystem? “This question, which we asked ourselves, created ‘K-Cube Ventures’. There were not many opportunities for the early stage companies in Korea. They needed ‘Money’ and ‘Practical experiences’ from other entrepreneurs who went through same difficulties. That’s how K-Cube Ventures…

Bon Angels Early Stage VC & Veteran Pacemaker There is a visionary behind such rapid growth of Korean Startups.  Bon Angles Venture Partners, as a first ever investment company specialized in startups established in 2010, has been engaged in partnering with early stage IT companies and made a great success. What makes Bon Agels different from other investment companies, not to mention about their specialties, is a communication even before the company’s…

Korea is still seeing some immense growth. According to the Korean Venture Capital Association, venture capital firms in Korea raised $191 million in the first quarter this year, up slightly from $189  million in 2012. Interestingly, there is a general slowdown in the U.S. startup scene – U.S. venture capital firms raised $4.1 billion from 35 funds during the first quarter of this year according to the National Venture Capital Association (this is about a 34%…