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25 Year Old Korean Startup CEO Nets $2.5M Investment To Connect Fashion Addicts to Retailers
2014년 05월 27일

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…

New Kakao-Daum Merger Aims to De-Throne Naver-Line And Expedite Kakao’s IPO
2014년 05월 27일

Kakao Corp, this week has announced an agreement to buy Korea’s second largest domestic Internet-portal operator Daum Communications in an all-stock deal. It is hoped that the deal will boost the merged entity’s presence in on both Web and mobile services. The deal comes at a time when tech analysts are heralding the end of messaging 2.0, as most independent messaging services which have seen enormous growth recently will now have merged or been…

Korean ‘Hello Market’ Raises $2.5M to Augment Their C2C Buying Platform In Asia
2014년 05월 22일

Hello Market, who have just announced their first funding round of $2.5M, is a C2C marketplace platform service that allows users to sell, buy, and exchange goods and services through mobile platforms (Android, iOS) as well as the web. According to Co-Founder Alber Hahn their goal now is to continue to apply, update, and expand upon the craigslist C2C commerce model, with a current focus on further expansion into Japan. The Hello Market…

Korea’s Banks Foundation and Singapore’s JFDI Announce Partnership to Connect & Accelerate Startups Across Asia
2014년 05월 22일

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…

Korean Startup ESTmob Behind File-sharing App Send Anywhere Raises $1M From Rakuten Ventures
2014년 05월 20일

Originally Posted by TechInAsia ESTmob, the Seoul-based team behind file-sharing app Send Anywhere revealed today it has completed a US$1 million seed round led by Rakuten Ventures. ESTmob co-founder Suhyuk Kang said that they will use the funding to expand their user-base around the globe and ramp up the app’s feature set. Send Anywhere delivers a basic, somewhat mundane utility to device owners. After one downloads the app, a user selects a…

Four Killer Presentation Tips for the BeLaunch Startup Battle
2014년 05월 12일

BeLaunch 2014 kicks off this Wednesday in Dongdaemun, but It’s a fair bet that some of the contenders in this year’s startup battle are still perfecting their presentations. I did competitive pitches for almost 10 years in the PR industry and now I’m telling the world about my current company. From this experience, I’ve found some clear attributes that winning pitches have. Here’s the list: 1. Tell a Great Story Your slides…

beLAUNCH 2014 Speakers Provide Their Feedback An Amazing Event For Asian Startups and Tech, May 14-15
2014년 05월 09일

I got in touch with some of our top speakers in the run-up to beLAUNCH next week and was quite blown away by their enthusiasm for coming to Seoul to see for themselves why Korea is blowing up in the global startup consciousness. Below are a few of these quotations: Eric Migicovsky, CEO Pebble “It has been interesting to see the emergence of Korea as one of the most important high-tech nations…

Korean Startup ‘Kairos Watches’ Come Runners up at Startup Asia in Singapore – Next Stop beLAUNCH 2014 In Seoul
2014년 05월 09일

Startup Asia in Singapore has just ended and the team has already announced their 2014 winners and runners up. While the top spot and $10k prize went to a Hong Kong team, Bindo, first runners up are a team that will also be showcasing at beLAUNCH 2014 in Seoul next week, May 14-15. Kairos Watches, a South Korea-based startup that manufactures a hybrid mechanical smartwatch . Second runner-up is Asli Goli, a…

500 Startups, Gangnam Style!
2014년 05월 08일

500 Startups: Asia is all about the mobile internet. And one particular country, home of amazing food and amazing connectivity has quietly been a technology leader not just regionally but worldwide. That’s right, I’m talking about Korea: home of 2NE1, PSY, Samsung, and a quickly growing tech startup scene. For a country of roughly 50 million people, Korea is disproportionately important in technology. Did you know that it was ranked second in the world…

If you’re missing Belaunch here’s who spoke at the afternoon session
2014년 05월 06일

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…

An Angel’s Perspective on Investing In Korean Startups
2014년 05월 05일

Aviram Jenik is a rare entrepreneurial breed in Korea. He has built and exited two global companies and his third venture, Beyond Security, is working steadily towards an IPO in the US. In his free time Aviram makes Angel Investments in and coaches Korean entrepreneurs. I caught up with him recently to learn about his experiences as an Angel Investor in Korea. Disclaimer: Ok, before you think you’ve missed something, Aviram is…

The Future is Asia: Perspectives from beLAUNCH Speaker, Soujanya Bhumkar
2014년 05월 04일

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…

Food Delivery App War in Korea Heats Up: Yogiyo Vs Baedari-Minjok
2014년 05월 02일

Food delivery in Korea is among the best in the world, and there are now two heavyweights battling it out for ultimate supremacy. Yogiyo was founded by Team Europe as a quasi-copycat app to the existing local player, and allows ordering by either calling the restaurant directly or by using an in-app quick messaging service. As a foreigner, the addition of the quick messaging service is really handy. It means I don’t…

What You May Not Have Known About Korea, ‘Land of the Morning Calm’ & Now Startup Hub in NE Asia
2014년 04월 29일

Korea, once referred to as the ‘Land of the Morning Calm,’ is emerging as one of the key startup hubs in Asia. I have witnessed firsthand the exponential pace of change in this once conservative and shy nation over the last ten years, and I am encouraged by the hunger with which local founders are embracing the challenge and opportunity presented by entrepreneurship. As predictable and arduous corporate careers begin to lose…

Shakr Drives Down Prices in Automotive Advertising
2014년 04월 28일

Digital Video Ads Created in 20 Minutes, and for $50. This promise from Shakr Media, the Korean startup that is dedicated to re-imagining everything to video, is ready to rev up local auto dealer advertisements. The company, which has demonstrated a dedication to ‘going global’ by setting up offices in San Fransisco, today announced that it has added nearly a dozen video advertising styles for auto dealers to its drag-and-drop simple video creation solution….

Using Data To Ignite Growth, Welcome To DataBeat Conference
2014년 04월 25일

DataBeat — VentureBeat’s second annual big data conference on May 19-20 in San Francisco— is laser-focused on helping companies increase profitability through smart analytics and big data tools. Now that data is driving their decisions, growth-oriented executives are confronting a bewildering set of options.  They’re gathering the brightest minds in the industry to filter through the noise and give new insights on technologies and strategies that will accelerate growth. beSUCCESS is offering a 15% discount on tickets and…

Who gets into Accelerators? New stats Out
2014년 04월 24일

As accelerators have fully taken root in Seoul’s burgeoning startup ecosystem, with at least ten being worthy of mention, statistics have just been released to help founders get visibility into the profile of successful applicants to startup Accelerators. More than 250,000 founders and 47,000 startups globally use F6S’ accelerator recruiting tool, and approximately 90% of Accelerators globally use the advanced platform to take applications, manage community and select successful applicants. The results…

Eight News Stories From Korea’s Mobile & Technology Industry, Featuring Samsung, LG, Pantech
2014년 04월 21일

1. Pantech Co., South Korea’s smallest smartphone manufacturer after Samsung and LG, recently raised concerns over a mobile carrier’s decision to cut the factory price of its smartphone, saying the two did not have an agreement on the matter. LG Uplus said it will slash the price of Vega Secret Up smartphones by 37%, to $577.92 from the previous price of aroun $900, claiming the move is meant to help Pantech expand…

K CUBE Ventures: How This VC Became a Startup’s Best Friend
2014년 04월 20일

Investing in Korean startups can be a tough job for Venture Capitalists. Despite amazing growth over the last two to three in the venture ecosystem, we will have to wait for a further five years or more to see the fruits of this second push for a creative economy in Korea over the last ten years. As we know, VCs base their earning potential on few successful investments that can generate enormous…

Register today for 20% off GMIC – Asia’s Largest Mobile Conference
2014년 04월 17일

Established in 2009, the Global Mobile Internet Conference (GMIC) Beijing is arguably Asia’s most influential mobile industry conference. Taking place on May 5-6, 2014, GMIC will attract over 10,000 mobile industry executives, entrepreneurs, developers and investors from 30+ countries. This year, as part of our partnership with GMIC, our own Global Director, Nathan Millard, will be moderating a panel with four of Asia’s top investors from Korea, Japan, and China to discuss…