Althea the top Korean beauty commerce company in South East Asia has been successful in securing an investment from 500Startups, which is among the best known Silicon Valley venture capitals. Although the company was only launched in April this year, they successfully secured an early stage investment with Bon Angels in May. Five months down the track, they have caught the eye of Silicon Valley’s 500Startups with a new investment. Key members of…

On the 6th, the joint investment was confirmed between K Cube Ventures, a specialist investor into internet, mobile and technology and Partners Investment. The investment is into a game company Kong Doo Company which specializes in MCN (Multi Channel Network) for games and the investment worth US$1.7m (KRW 2b) Kong Doo Company Professional is Korea’s premier gaming MCN originally starting with StarCraft gamers Hong Jin Ho and Kim Taek Young. For the…

Each year, beSUCCESS which is Asia’s leading network for startup and technology media, hosts local events both in Korea and USA. Following on from the successful completion of ‘beGLOBAL Seoul 2015’ in May, ‘beGLOBAL San Francisco 2015’ will be held on the 15th October. Hosting these two annual events has created a vital link between Asia and America in discovering startup talent. The upcoming San Francisco event is expected to create instrumental…

Since beginning in 2012 as beLAUNCH, beGLOBAL has grown and successfully concluded the seventh startup conference beGLOBAL in both Korea and the U.S. To date, the event has been attended by 15,000 people from over 25 countries. To more than 4,000 startups, the event has become a global networking platform. beGLOBAL SF 2015 will be held in San Francisco, on the 15th of October and will provide an opportunity for Korean domestic startups…

Korea’s largest angel investor, Primer, teamed up with US-based eCommerce investor, Sazze, to invest in Indie CF aiming to revolutionize mobile advertising with their service Hooreel that connects people in need of video ads to capable directors. Hooreel puts the power of an entire video production studio in the palm of every smartphone user, enabling people to plan, edit and broadcast their own viral marketing videos. With this investment, Hooreel plans to expand their…

On the 1st October, CoinPlug, a Fintech company specializing in blockchain technology using bitcoins, announced that it had secured US$4.2m (KRW 5b) in investments from domestic investors. Atinum Investment lead the investment along with other investors including KB Investment and SBI Investments. Uh Jun Sun CoinPlug’s representative said, “This investment activity from local investors highlights the rising importance of blockchain technology”. He added the company was, “Delighted that CoinPlug has become the first blockchain…

Way Wearble, the developer of ‘Way’ the world’s first skin care IoT solution has received an investment from Amore Pacific which is Asia’s leading cosmetics·beauty corporation. Way Wearable is preparing for mass production and service development of Wave with the planned global launch to occur later this year. The investment amount has not been disclosed. Way Wearable first is the world’s first to incorporate IoT (Internet of Things) in skin care. The technology…

  Wishket, a startup specialist in IT outsourcing has received a US$1 million (KRW 1.2b) investment from Smilegate Investment and Mega Investment. Wishket is an online outsourcing platform linking IT projects with IT specialists that can carry out the work. When a company registers a project on Wishket, prospective talent are able to anonymously tender their proposals. The various proposals are organized in concisely and in a format easy to compare. In the process…

From humble beginning in 2012 as beLAUNCH, beGLOBAL has successfully concluded the seventh startup conference beGLOBAL in both Korea and U.S. To date, the event has been attended by 15,000 people from over 25 countries. To more than 4,000 startups, the event has become a global networking platform. beGLOBAL SF 2015 will be held in San Francisco on the 15th of October and will provide an opportunity for Korean domestic startups to network…

Viddsee raises USD2.3 million to date, after bringing Japan-based CyberAgentVentures (CAV) as lead investor in its latest round of funding to develop the new wave of mobile-powered cinema, starting with Asia. Viddsee is a hybrid online video platform that showcases short films on its web platform and through its mobile Viddsee app. It was founded two years ago by Ho Jia Jian and Derek Tan, two entrepreneurs in Singapore with a background…

Kono Labs the developer of an artificial intelligence scheduling service, released their native iOS app Kono for both Apple and Android in USA and Korea. Kono works with calendars inbuilt into smartphones like Google Calendar and simplifies the task of scheduling appointments. By selecting the type of meeting and with whom, the app provides available time slot and locations and send the invitation through mobile phishing in place of email and text message….

‘Wanted’ developed by ‘Wanted Labs’ is an employment recommendation service. The company has attracted investments of US$1.4m (KRW 1.7b) from KTB Network, Mirae Asset Venture Investment and Stone Bridge Capital. This has come four months after the release of their open-beta service. Wanted allows experts in a field to recommend peers. If the lead is successful, the person who made the recommendation is rewarded with a recommendation fee. Companies from different fields have…

    Technology investment specialist K Cube Ventures, confirmed on the 22nd investment of US$400k (KRW 470m) into Binary VR, a startup for facial expression tracking based on cyber reality and avatar generating solution. Binary VR is able to recognise facial expressions in real time and transfer this onto a virtual reality 3D generated avatar. Ryu Ji Hoon a key member of Binary VR had previously developed relevant technology whilst working for…

  On the 21st September, global satellite communication company DiGiFi Korea was successful with securing an investment worth US$170 million (KRW 200 billion) from UAE’s largest venture investment company, MENA Apps. Founded in 2014, DiGiFi Korea is a global company that developed an antenna for satellite communication that enables worldwide internet access. Their technology is able to create a wi-fi hotspot through their antenna that broadcasts the internet through low earth orbit satellite….

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…

Brandi who develop applications for sharing shopping reviews, has successfully won a US$420k (KRW 500m) investment from DSC investments. Brandi is the app to share photos and reviews of shopping items. Users are able to view photos in an Instragram like environment and read reviews regarding the product. The investment funds will assist the company plans for further development of their mobile systems and technologies whilst providing a boost to marketing efforts. DSC…

On the 15th September, Daum Kakao revealed an investment of  US$2.5m(KRW 3b) into Dunamu which provides a mobile social portfolio investment service. The deal includes a strategic business agreement between the two companied to jointly provide a stock-financial service. Dunamu is a special fintech startup operating mobile investment portfolio app Stock Plus for Kakao through their messenger KakaoTalk. Stock Plus (app) has now reached a cumulative contract value of US$1.7b (2 trillion KRW); 30…

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…

On the 10th September, FiscalNote announced its acquisition of Korean political analytic company MyCandidate. FiscalNote provides services of real time legal and policy data analysis. Similarly, the South Korean company MyCandidate specializes in analysis of political candidate campaigns through their developed and services application. This acquisition is expected to boost the access of open legal and government data from Asia through  MyCandidate that tracks and collects information of political campaigns and summarises…