ZaiSeoul is a Korean Travel business specifically catering for Chinese tourist requirements through their travel service platform. On the 18th September, ZaiSeoul confirmed an investment from NICE group for US$2.5m (KRW 3b).  Since 2011, ZaiSeoul has distributed a discount coupon like magazine in Korea and China. The magazine distributed monthly, services Chinese tourists with travel information including accommodation, restaurants, tourist attractions, shopping and other travel related contents. In total, the magazine has distributed…

Mobile game OriginGames has secured US$1.7m (KRW 20b) from two very well known Venture Capital companies; American VC Altos Ventures; and Bon Angels Venture Partners who were the first VC in Korea to specifically target startup investments. Origin game is a startup specializing in mobile games. Their key personnel include webgen ‘R2’ and C9’ team leaders, and key development team members from Nexen ‘Dungeon and Fighter’. They are currently developing a mobile game…

On the 15th September, Korean startup and game development company Buff Studio confirmed an investment of US$420k (KRW 500m) had been received from NC Soft. Buff Studio is the creator of the popular action and RPG (Role Play Game) game, ‘Buff Knight – RPG Runner’.  Some awards won by Buff Knight include the following awards: 2014 Korean Game Awards: Indie Game Award 2014 Top 30 Best Games 2014 on Google Plan (Korea) #1…

Drama & Company, the developer of business card organiser app Remember has secured investments totalling US$5.4m (KRW 6.5b). The investors include Partners Investment, Korea Investment Partners, Ajuib Investment and Daegyo Investment. Remember has gained popularity for its highly accurate input system and has over 650 thousand users. It is the leading business card organizing app and was voted the the best business card organizing app in the ‘2015 Customer Satisfaction Index’. Unlike…

Mobile, internet and technology investment specialists, K Cube Ventures has invested US$250k (KRW 300m) into Apple Pie Studies, a startup dealing in social pet services. Apple Pie Studios allows users to interact and nurture for virtual pets through their social pet service, HelloPet. Kan Ho Young the company representative utilises his diverse experience covering social and language to mingle colleagues from various aspects of the business covering planning, development and operations from the…

Editor’s note : This article ‘NEOFECT shows how a robotic glove can help stroke victims’ was orginally published by e27’s Elaine Huang Meet NEOFECT, a South Korean tech company that wants to change the face of rehabilitative therapy for victims of stroke and other brain trauma. Founded by Hoyoung Ban, who is also the CEO, NEOFECT is doing that with RAPAEL, a US$1,000 robotic glove that runs on Android and connects to…

Editor’s note : This article ‘Everyone’s livestreaming, broadcasting on mobile’ was originally published by e27’s Elaine Huang On smartphone screens worldwide, Kim Yubin and Lee Sunmi of famous Korean pop (K-pop) quartet Wonder Girls greet V users with singsong voices and peace hand signs. The two young celebrities banter playfully, amidst girly giggles, while fans litter the comments board with coloured hearts, compliments and ㅋㅋㅋ, which indicates laughter in Korean. V is South Korean conglomerate Naver’s app…

Editor’s note : This article ‘Make your own viral video ads to entice users with Hooreel’ was orginally published by e27’s Elaine Huang Late last month, South Korean startup IndieCF launched its first iOS application Hooreel which promises to let anyone and everyone with a smartphone “create their own viral marketing videos”. The free app is specifically targetted at business owners who might not have the equipment, resources or expertise to create…

Travel Note & Tour, developer of location based social travel service, Travel Note has announced its success in securing an investment of US $420k from Coolidge Corner Investment, specialist in venture capital for startups. After launching June 2013, Travel Note & Tour went on to win the 2013 excellence award at the Tourism Creation Ideas Contest. For two consecutive years, the startup has also been chosen as the leading creator of tourism business…

Uvify a startup specializing in the development of autonomous unmanned drone technologies, has won an investment deal with K Cube Ventures.  This deal was confirmed on the 2nd September by K Cube Ventures who are widely known as leaders in technology investments. The investment deal is thought to be worth a quarter million US dollars. Aside from the K Cube Ventures investment, Uvify has secured further investments from two state run agencies with…

  As revealed on the 31st August, mobile service provider YellowMobile has reported Q2 sales total of US$66m which is up 533% from the same period last year.  Compared to Q1 figures, sales has grown by 38%. YellowMobile’s Q2 goals followed on from Q1 trends as they concentrated their efforts on expansion into foreign markets, and positioning itself for sector growth. The results of the 5 business streams categorised in order of magnitude are: O2O $27.6m…

On September 1, Softbank Ventures Korea announced a joint investment deal with Capstone Partners for an amount US$920k which is to be invested into Gaudi Audio Lab. When founded, Gaudi Audio Lab’s mission was to provides the ultimate sound experience that integrates sound and feeling.  This sound solution technology is aimed at complementing the emerging AR and VR markets. Key members include experts at the Wilus Institute of Standard and Technology who led…

On the 28th August, Softbank Ventures announced its US$1.7m investment into Converse who have developed the anonymous communication app called Around. Around is a SNS app that allows users to freely share their feelings about life, workplace, emotions, love affairs and family. Being an anonymous SNS platform, there is no need to cloak any of these feeling for social acceptance. Users of around have given the app a score of 4.9 out…

On the 26th August, ‘K Cube Venture’ specialists in mobile, internet and technology investments, confirmed a US$700 k investment into BitFinder.  BitFinder is a startup providing an Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) monitoring and control system solution.  This solution is Awair and allows users to be ‘Aware’ of the ‘air quality by determining what bits (particles) are in the air.  It does this through a concept called Internet of Things (IoT). Internet of Things (IoT) is…

Zimcar is an innovative house removal service developed by ‘Five Thirty’ who are located in the Cultural Creation Hub of PanGyo in the KyungGi province of Korea.  Recently, with the assistance of the Kyung Gi local council, Five Thirty have secured investments from ‘Big Bang Angels’. To celebrate this success, a signing ceremony was held on the 26th of August at the Kyung Gi Culture Creation Hub in PanGyo and was attended…

Fintech startup company BMO has received approximately US$1.8 million from investors including Yellow Financial Group, Settle Bank and Shin Hyun Sung the CEO of Ticket Monster for their P2P (peer to peer) loan service platform Honest Fund. Honest Fund is a peer to peer personal loans and investments service, that directly connects borrowers to lenders without banking institutions. The platform provides borrowers access to funds that do not impact on credit ratings…

If you’ve ever experienced the frustration in finding the right insurance plan then MyRealPlan is the solution you’ve been waiting for.  Of course, finding the right insurance plan is just the start, you then need to find the best value amongst the multitude of insurance service providers and their brokers, and the broker’s brokers.  But no need to worry, since MyRealPlan has this solved too, with their reverse bidding process, where insurance…

  Korean travel tour and activity startup, MyRealTrip has revealed that it had secured additional investment through Silicon Valley company AltosVentures. For MyRealTrip, this new investment comes 1 year after the combined US$840 thousand investment from SmileGateInvestment and CapstonePartners in June last year. The funding will provide the needed foundations in launching the business globally. MyRealTrip was founded in 2012 as a travel startup offering locals around the globe the opportunity to partake…

  On the 25th August, it was revealed that Yogiyo a popular food delivery service app in Korea had received further investment of $35 million from DeliveryHero.  DeliveryHero is a German company that provides online food service solutions internationally. This brings the total investments into Yogiyo to approximately US$55 million. Through this investment  Yogiyo will direct their focus towards achieving the total satisfaction of their customers, through continued development and improvement to products and services….

ChulGaBang, developed by HelloWorld, is an integrated platform for managing deliveries and operations of small-to-medium sized food companies. SBI Investments Korea, HB Investment, and Sejong Venture Partners have invested a total of USD $2.7M in the recent round. The phrase “chul gabang” means “bag made of iron” and, as the name suggests, ChulGaBang’s deliverers sport a metal case that is mounted onto scooters and used for delivering food. HelloWorld has integrated the processes of placing orders,…