Cherubic Ventures kicked off 2016 with an annual summit in the glamorous Shanghai, where East meets the West. More than 200 guests from its portfolio companies, partners from top venture capital firms and business partners all attended to share their thoughts on the opportunities and challenges in the early-stage tech investment space in the world. As an early-stage venture capital firm with coverage across U.S and the Greater China region, Cherubic Ventures…

Editor’s note:  Senior Director Corporate Development at Baedal Minjok There is no doubt that Korea is in a revolutionary moment. In my last post, “Korea Rising”, I illustrated the unique position Korea is currently in. Leaving it with only one option: Build. The Korean War (1950–1953) left the country in a state of utter disorder. The bustling metropolis we reside in today was but a dream when basic running water was a…

On the 4th September, judging of teams competing in the startup battle for beGLOBAL’s upcoming San Francisco 2015 conference event was finalized at an event at ‘Startup Alliance’, Korea. As part of the process startups teams were judged in a two stage process: first stage documentation review and qualification process, followed by second stage presentations. Of the teams that presented to the judging panel, the top 10 startups were selected for this years beGLOBAL…

Altos Ventures, headquartered in Silicon Valley, has invested $2 million USD in Hyperconnect, the developer of live time video communication technology and the service host for the video messenger ‘Azar.’ Hyperconnect has developed a very distinct client/server technology stack for WebRTC based real-time video/voice communication. It is very secure and reliable for various settings in 200 countries with very high quality video chat. The technology is built on P2P so the management…

A leader in navigation solutions from Korea, Thinkware, has developed a new product with imbedded augmented reality technology. The new iNavi X1 model allows the driver to view the actual image of the road on which they are driving and see a range of useful traffic information. The company in Seoul unveiled the “iNavi X1” that combines augmented reality with advanced driving assistance system (ADAS). The AR solution called “Extreme AR” within…

“When it comes to innovation Korea is a global leader” – Mark Zuckerburg The above statement comes from a speech Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook CEO delivered recently, and demonstrates a changing tide of thought about Korea. No more the ‘Land of Morning calm’ it once was, Korea is emerging emboldened onto the world stage, ready to prove itself, no matter what. My recent article described Korea’s top accelerators and their efforts in providing…

Korean gaming company ‘SundayToz’ and The Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Development and have created the ‘AniPang Fund.’ The fund will be aimed at startups in the following fields: Gaming, Social, digital content, platform based technology and contents based technology. The ‘AniPang Future Contents Investment Association’ will operate under the management of Smilegate Investment. While the fund will primarily focused on startups in Korea, a representative from SundayToz has confirmed that they are…

‘Appspand’ is an advanced communication service, allowing voice, video, and chat to be added to any web/mobile app, with a few lines of additional code. Uberple was founded in Jan 2013 with the vision of dramatically improving communication within the financial services industry. This need was borne out the founder’s experience of crude tools available for communication both internally and with clients. While their scope has been broadened to embrace opportunities in…

DEV Korea’s Startup Acceleration Program ‘Start it Up in New York’ Demo Day will be held in seoul this afternoon. DEV Korea is one of a growing number of domestic and international accelerators in Seoul that are capitalizing on the rapid growth in the domestic startup ecosystem Sparklabs will also hold their demo day December 11. DEV Korea was nominated as the 2014 Global Accelerator Develop Management Agency by the Ministry of…

According to the Korea Small Business Institute, small and medium enterprises running their own research institutes suffered from a technology outflow worth $5.6 billion between 2011 and 2013. The amount was equivalent to 58% of their R&D expenditures for the same period. The sales decrement caused by the tech leak was $2.27 million on average, or around 20% of annual sales. However, despite knowledge of the problem, most companies have not make…

This is part two of this story. Part 1 here In 2010 when Bong-jin Kim left’ Naver’ (Korea’s primary online search portal), he had no idea about Venture Capital or ‘Exit’. Additionally, he had no interest in global expansion. He built his startup to focus on solving ‘small issues that Koreans face in their daily lives’. Yesturday we discussed how he raised his first three rounds of funding. Today we look at how…

In 2010 when Bong-jin Kim left’ Naver’ (Korea’s primary online search portal), he had no idea about Venture Capital or ‘Exit’. Additionally, he had no interest in global expansion. He built his startup to focus on solving ‘small issues that Koreans face in their daily lives’. That is how Baedal Minjok started. But recently his ‘startup’ raised $36 million USD from Goldman Sachs. He concluded, “if a person like me who had…

As Seoul establishes itself as one of the key hotspots in Asia for startups and entrepreneurs, a large number of events aimed at entrepreneurs are springing up to support this growth. Here is a calendar of events for startups and entrepreneurs in Seoul, from November 20th to November 27th. Check in soon for the next instalment. We are also happy to add your startup-focused event to our calendar. If you’d like us…

Asia Beat 2014 is a 2-day event held in Taipei, Taiwan. Primarily it is a VC networking and Asian startup event  funded by startup related government institutions in Taiwan, as well as media and business consortiums from Japan, China, Korea, and Singapore. Get Tickets For AsiaBeat 2014 here. Korea will be represented by ten startups at the event. They are: Bridge Mobile will be represented by Jung-woo Choi, the winning team from…

“We are trying to come up with a realistic solution to help startups to relocate overseas. We are going to completely reimagine what people have done so far. We are going to determine what startups truly need.”                                                                                                                           Steven Baek, FuturePlay Founded in early 2014, FuturePlay focuses on funding early-stage tech startups. The company believes that in order to understand the market properly and have a solid basis, a…

“We think about ourselves more as a tutoring-based approach, a one-to-one approach”  Mark Tetto, The Ventures The Ventures was founded early in 2014 by Changseong Ho and Jiwon Moon, who formerly created Viki, a community-driven distribution platform for TV contents. The company was acquired last year by Japanese Rakuten for $200 million. The Ventures works very closely with startups for an un-specified period of time. Startups receive office space, mentoring and professional…

beSUCCESS is happy to announce that we are offering 25% off all GMIC SV tickets. To take advantage of this offer, please register using this code [GMICSVD32203F1]. GMIC Silicon Valley is the Largest Mobile Internet Conference in Silicon Valley and will be held December 1-3, 2014 Mobilizing the Next 5 Billion GMIC SV 2014 brings the global mobile ecosystem to Silicon Valley for three days of thought provoking presentations on the industry’s hottest…

As Seoul establishes itself as one of the key hotspots in Asia for startups and entrepreneurs, a large number of events are springing up to support this growth. Here is a calendar of events for startups and entrepreneurs in Seoul, from November 20th to November 27th. Check in soon for the next instalment. We are also happy to add your event to our calendar. Please send the details to nathan@besuccess.com and if…

Seoul based MOCOPLEX has recently announced a strategic alliance with SMAATO, an Ad specialist company based in San Francisco. The partnership will leverage the unique expertise of each partner, while expanding their reach by combining Ad networks in their respective home markets. Much discussion in Korea has recently centered around the difficulties of successfully expanding into new markets. Korean/Asian startups often struggle to take hold outside their domestic borders. In the same…

Seoul, with its rapidly growing startup ecosystem, is gaining precedence as one of the most promising entrepreneurial hubs in the world. Home to two of the most influential global tech leaders, Samsung and LG, the perception of Seoul has traditionally been of a corporate hub. This is now rapidly changing, as a new breed of tech startups rise and as the big boys begin to plateau. South Korea is now rapidly moving…