Silicon Valley investment company Altos Ventures recently announced its US $3.0M investment in Trillionaire. Trillionaire runs a Korean cosmetic ecommerce service called HuiSeoul, which focuses on providing Korean beauty products exclusively to the Chinese market. The journey for HuiSeoul started in a single store in Myung Dong (Seoul) back in November 2014. The company reacted quickly to an identified market in China for Korean cosmetic and beauty products. In February 2015, HuiSeoul began, and started to…

Mesh Korea specializes in the development of online platforms that support the distribution and logistics requirements of businesses. On August 18, a representative from the company, Ryu Jung Bum, confirmed that Mesh Korea had raised US $3.4M from SBI Investment and Korea Development Bank (KDB Capital). Prior to this investment, Mesh Korea raised a total of US $6.8M from both domestic and oversea investors, including an investment from VentureSquare back in January. Mesh Korea, which…

  On August 17th, Wemakeprice a company dealing with social commerce, announced it had raised a total of $85M following the third release of its shares through NXC. Through this investment, Wemakeprice plans to seek the necessary talent and improve its systems in order to accelerate and improve the shopping experience for its customers and partners. NXC specializes in online and mobile games production as well as distribution through its subsidiary Nexon. Kim…

MCN (Multi Channel Network) specialist Treasure Hunter announced its success in attracting an investment worth US$3.3m (KRW 4b) from DSC Investment. This announcement was made by Song Jae Ryong the representative from Treasure Hunter. This follows investments of US$5.6m (KRW 6.7b) in May which was led by the company’s stategic partner 4:33 and three other venture capitals located in Korea and overseas. In total the company has raised nearly US$9m (KRW 10.7b)…

Scatter Lab, a big data analysis company specializing in analyzing chat emotions, announced a series A investment of 1.3 billion won from Softbank Ventures and KTB. Both companies have an equal share in the investment, each investing 650 million won in the company. Scatter Lab was founded in 2011 as a startup specializing in analyzing emotions, aiming to give people a more valuable chat experience. It now operates a service caller Ginger, which is an artificial intelligence…

  On the 4th of August, ‘K Cube Ventures’ a specialist in mobile, internet and special technology investments, revealed that it had invested into ‘Brat Village’, an O2O (online to offline) home care service provider.  A key member in the ‘Brat Village’ startup is Mr. Sung-Min Park who was a founding member of ‘Easy Taxi’ and previous to this of ‘Limo Taxi’. ‘Doctor House’ developed by ‘Brat Villlage’ is a mobile service…

인터넷 서비스 개발 기업 라쏘(대표 임백호)가 국내 최초로 모바일 관련 디자이너들을 위한 전문 사이트 유아이스푼 (http://www.uispoon.com)을 오픈했다고 23일 밝혔다. 유아이스푼 (UIspoon) 은 개인 포트폴리오 페이지를 쉽게 구축해주는 웹사이트로써 포트폴리오가 꼭 필요한 디자이너와 아티스트들이 유용하게 사용할 수 있는 툴이다. 사용자는 UI스푼을 통해 디자인한 종이 프로토타이핑에서 와이어프레이밍 단계 그리고 완성된 랜딩 페이지에 연결할 수 있다. 또한, 같은 업계에 종사하고 있는 다른 디자이너가 올린 작품에 댓글을 다는 등 디자이너 간의 소통이 가능해 커뮤니티의 역할도 한다. 사실상…

32살, 한국의 젊은 여성 기업가 장성은 대표가 이끄는 국내 스타트업, 요크(YOLK)의 초경량, 초박형 태양광 충전기 ‘솔라페이퍼 (Solar Paper)’가 지난 7월 7일, 크라우드 펀딩 플랫폼 킥스타터 (Kickstarter)를 통해 솔라페이퍼를 선보인 요크는 일주일 만에 2억 원 (20만 달러) 이상의 금액을 모금에 이어 7월 30일 현재 기준으로는 모금액 8억을 넘었다. 9 x 17cm 사이즈에 두께 1.5mm, 무게 60g로 ‘세계에서 가장 얇고 가벼운 태양광 충전기’인 솔라페이퍼는 하나의 패널로 시간 당 2.5W의 전력을 생산한다. 이는 현재 상용화된…

  The YAP Company is a Korean startup providing O2O commerce platform using an independent hybrid beacon technique. Recently, New World Group (Hong Kong) has combined with Korean investors, to provide YAP Company with a combined US$34.8m (KRW 42b) investment. YAP’s platforms, deliver essential information and benefits that are tailored according to the users time, location, circumstances, and necessities. YAP single-handedly embodies the entire transaction process of payment settlements requiring coupons, mobile stamps, and…

  Viva Republica, a Fintech startup has developed Toss, an easy money transfer solution that removes cumbersome identity or security card requirements.    On the 21st July, Viva Republica revealed that it had secured total $4.2m (US) investment from KTB Network, Altos ventures and IBK. With this investment, Viva Republica plans to step into the e-transactions with services that offer real time transfers and a deposit service for non account holders. Toss…

Ylab is a Korean webtoon developer and is the creative force behind popular titles such as ‘Fashion King’, ‘Josun Dynasty’ and ‘Abyss of the Sky’.  Recently, Value Investment Korea made an investment of US$2.5m into Ylab.  This investment has been confirmed by representative from both companies.   Ylab was founded by webtoon author Yoon In Hwan who published ‘Blade of the Phantom Master’ which amassed more than 6 million views.  Within the first…

Simfler have developed an app called ‘Baby Time’ which is designed to  make parenting simpler and easier by managing the associated parenting activity data.  The app records and manages activities like feeding intervals, sleeping periods and nappy change times. Along with this essential data, the app provides relevant advice and information on child growth phases, customized growth diary and lullabies. The app features an intuitive interface allowing the user to record a…

RedTable is a Korean startup providing data analysis services for restaurants.  It was first established by a group of masters and doctorates from the Sae Jong University, Department of Hotel and Tourism.  Recently RedTable secured investments to the scale of US$930k. As revealed by ‘Red Table’, the investment was made by three companies: US$418k from East Gate Partners, US$410k from Angel Investment and the balance from Medium Business R&D.   Red Table was established…

Korean researchers at the Center for Nanoparticle Research, Institute for Basic Science in Seoul have developed a stretchable silver nanowire mesh that heats your joints no matter how you bend them. (IBS was founded in 2011 by the government of the Republic of Korea with the sole purpose of driving forward the development of basic science in Korea It comprises a total of 50 research centers in all fields of basic science, including mathematics,…

‘Verlocal’, is a service app that allows individuals to share their talents and knowledge.  Its aim is to be a social marketplace where people with talent meet people with curiosity.  It was revealed that a 1 million investment had been secured from Silicon Valley investment firms ‘Seven Seas Venture Partner’ and ‘Big Basic Capital. The company was founded by two US university  graduates.  The CEO of Verlocal, Lee Won Hong, is a…

신용카드 추천 서비스 뱅크샐러드 개발사로 알려진 (주)레이니스트는 지난 주 IBK 기업은행 전국 650여개 지점에서 아이패드와 갤럭시 등 태블릿 PC를 통해 단 10회의 클릭으로 자신에게 가장 큰 혜택을 주는 카드를 추천해주는 ‘신용카드 추천 앱’을 출시했다. 기존의 신용카드 선택 방식은 직원 및 카드설계사의 권유, 지점에 배치되어 있는 리플릿을 통한 고객의 선택으로 이루어지는 경우가 대부분이었으나, 앞으로는 은행 지점에서 자신의 소비패턴을 직접 입력하여 가장 혜택금액이 큰 카드를 창구에서 바로 발급받을 수 있게 된 것이다. 실제 영업 지점 현장에서…

SparkLabs (www.sparklabs.co.kr), Asia’s leading startup accelerator, is hosting their fifth demo day in Seoul, Korea. With over 1,700 people registered to attend, startup fever in South Korea is reaching an all-time high. “We expect to break the attendance record with over 1,000 people attending our 5th demo day. This is a testament to our track record of selecting promising startups and helping them grow into great companies. The SparkLabs demo day has…

This article ‘Meet WAY, a chic and compact device for your skin’ was originally published by e27’s Elaine Huang Having seen it in person, WAY is chic, compact and combines data from sensors to provide pollution, weather and overall skin health reports. WAY is a newly-launched personal skincare device, compatible with iOS and Android smartphones, currently up for crowdfunding on Indiegogo with pre-orders offered at 40 per cent off the projected retail price of US$149. In…

Chutcha is a used car app developed and serviced by Mr Pick.  In the use car O2O space, it is widely known as a market leader. Mr. Pick through their extensive experience in online platforms, provides O2O business solutions.  The startup’s experience has been gathered from IT experts from companies like Naver, Neowiz and Nexon.  Recently, Mr Pick confirmed East Gate Partners will invest US$585k into the company.  Of course, behind East…

SoftBank Corp. (“SoftBank”) and Coupang today announced a definitive agreement under which a subsidiary of SoftBank will invest $1 billion in Coupang, the largest and fastest growing standalone e-commerce player in Korea. The investment is expected to close at the beginning of July, 2015 and will bring the total amount of funding raised by Coupang over the past year to nearly $1.5 billion. This funding will fuel Coupang’s innovations in its end-to-end fulfillment service, same-day…