South Korea Startups & Innovation News

Seoul, South Korea

April, 7, 2024

LB Investment: 7 startups that have grown more than 10 times

  LB Investment is raising expectations of a return thanks to the growth of the companies in its portfolio. Some startups are said to be doing a great job as their corporate value has jumped more than 10 times. As a result, LB Investment's return on investment is expected to draw an upward curve.According to the venture capital (VC) industry on the 2nd, a total of seven startups invested by LB Investment have grown more than 10 times in corporate value. Specifically, △Avely Corporation △LivsMed △Standard Energy △Music Cow △Perigee Aerospace △Ellis.Companies with a high probability of exiting this year include Avely Corporation, the operator of style commerce platform Avely, Livsmed, a company that develops laparoscopic surgical instruments, and Standard Energy, a vanadium-ion battery company.Among them, the corporate value of Avely Corporation is currently valued at 1 trillion won, so expectations for an exit are high. LB Investment's first investment in APLY was in 2019, when Avely's enterprise value was valued at about 70 billion won. Since then, the cumulative investment amount has exceeded 20 billion won. Avely Corporation recently raised its value to about 1 trillion won. Last year, it recorded the highest sales in its history for three consecutive years, and recorded its first operating profit and net profit surplus.  

https://n.news.naver.com/article/018/0005705364

Entrepreneurs know the situation of entrepreneurs well"... Venture Capital, Expansion of EIR System

  An increasing number of VCs, including Kakao Ventures, are introducing the Entrepreneur In Residence (EIR) system, which helps portfolio companies increase their valuation and help successful entrepreneurs start their businesses again. The EIR is a program in which successful entrepreneurs join VCs and prepare to start their own businesses again, while together diagnosing and solving problems of portfolio companies .

Usually, they are hired by VCs as contractors and work whenever they are asked to do so by portfolio companies. It has been run by US VCs such as Accel Partners and Sutter Hill Ventures to create unicorns (privately held companies with an enterprise value of more than 1 trillion won). The analysis is that it is creating a virtuous cycle that supports the growth of early-stage startups and at the same time helps successful entrepreneurs to start a chain of businesses.  

  On the 2nd, Kakao Ventures announced that it will officially introduce the EIR program, which was piloted last year. To this end, Kakao Ventures recruited former Recomio CEO Kim Tae-ho as an EIR partner. Recomio, an American machine learning and natural language processing startup, was sold to Coupang in 2014. Since then, Mr. Kim has served as a Lyft engineer and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Bank Salad. Mr. Kim will consult with Kakao Ventures' portfolio companies on technology and service advancement.  

https://n.news.naver.com/article/008/0005020361

Investing in sustainable companies... Discovering startups that actively respond to the aging population"

Nam Bo-hyun (pictured), CEO of impact investment firm HGI, said in an interview with the Korea Economic Daily on the 2nd, "We are intensively investing in companies that generate profits while having a positive social impact," and added, " This year, we will actively seek out startups that solve demographic problems such as the declining birthrate and aging population." Nam explained, "Companies that preemptively respond to social issues can preempt the market at an early stage, so investors can expect high returns."

HGI is an impact investment firm that invests in startups that solve social problems such as demographics, abnormal climate, and environmental pollution. Impact investing is an investment in sustainability, which means investing in companies that make a positive difference not only in terms of financial value, but also in society and the environment. HGI is a venture capital arm of Hyundai Group's affiliates. It was founded in 2014 by Hyundai Marine Chairman Chung Mong-yoon's eldest son, Jung Kyung-seon, the chief sustainability officer (CSO) of Hyundai Marine & Marine & The amount of assets under management is KRW 99.6 billion. Nam worked on information technology (IT) projects at SK Communications and LG Electronics before joining HGI in 2016 as the head of the investment team.

https://n.news.naver.com/article/015/0004967775

Busan City Future Growth Venture Fund 101 billion won

  The city of Busan announced on the 2nd that it has confirmed the creation of the Busan Future Growth Venture Fund, a parent fund that will be a signal for the expansion of investment ecosystem infrastructure for the growth of local innovative companies.A total of 101 billion won was raised, including 50 billion won from the Korea Development Bank, 5 billion won from Busan City, 10 billion won from BNK Financial Holdings, 25 billion won from the government's parent fund, and 11 billion won from other funds. The management company was decided to be Korea Venture Investment.

This Busan Future Growth Venture Fund is led by the local community, moving away from the method of local governments participating in the creation of government-led funds. From the second half of the year, it will begin to create a self-fund of more than 250 billion won.The fund is operated under a league system (40% of the parent fund in the region, 50% of the parent fund in the metropolitan area, and 10% of the parent fund in the global fund) in consideration of regional characteristics and capabilities. The plan is to improve the weaknesses of the local investment ecosystem through the role of each league.

Only local accelerators (ACs) and venture capital (VCs) can participate in the regional league as managers. Up to 70% of the fund will be invested to nurture local ACs and VCs and support the growth of promising local startups.

https://n.news.naver.com/article/008/0005020409

Ripple Labs to launch a dollar-backed stablecoin later this year

Ripple Labs, a blockchain company, announced on the 5th that it will issue a dollar-backed stablecoin in the second half of this year.

Ripple Labs will collateralize 100% of the stablecoin issuance with cash equivalents such as U.S. dollar deposits and U.S. short-term Treasury bonds. In addition, these reserve assets will be audited by a third-party accounting firm, and Ripple will issue a monthly proof. Currently, the size of the stablecoin market is about $150 billion (about 202 trillion won), and it is expected to grow to more than $2.8 trillion (about 3,776 trillion won) by 2028.

Brad Garlinghouse, Chief Executive Officer of Ripple Labs, said, "The issuance of this stablecoin is a natural step forward in Ripple's journey to bridge the gap between traditional finance and cryptocurrency, and the issuance of stablecoins is significant for the XRP Ledger (XRPL) community as it improves use cases, improves liquidity, and creates opportunities for developers and users."

https://www.techm.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=122739

Yanolja unveils new corporate identity..."It will become a hyper-connector for global travel"

Yanolja unveiled its new corporate identity (CI) on the 5th, revealing its ambition to accelerate innovation in the global travel market.

Yanolja's new mission is '10X', which means to make travel 10 times easier by creating hyper-connected travel technology born from data and people. It is a vision to effectively connect fragmented global travel information and data through Yanolja's platform and cloud solution technology, and to create a world where anyone can realize their dreams through travel with AI and big data technology.

As Anolja has evolved from a travel super app to a global leading cloud-based solution company, it plans to lead innovation in the global travel market as an AI-based data platform.

Along with the new missions, a new CI was also introduced. The new CI symbolizes the unlimited opportunities and connectivity of travel created by Yanolja's innovative technology. In addition, a symbol that embodies a line connecting the earth and each touch point of travel was added to visually express its identity as a 'hyper-connector' that connects the global travel market.

https://www.techm.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=122700

Coupang Eats, 6.49 million users in March... Beat Yogiyo to second place in delivery app

Coupang's delivery application Coupang Eats overtook Yogiyo to become the second largest delivery app.

On the 2nd, WiseApp, Retail, and Goods announced that as a result of a sample survey of Korean smartphone users (Android + iOS), the number of Coupang Eats app users in March 2024 reached 6.49 million, exceeding the 5.98 million Yogiyo app users.

This is the first time Coupang Eats has surpassed Yogiyo since its launch in June 2019. Coupang Eats significantly narrowed the gap between app users and Yogiyo after offering a '10% discount' to WOW members in April 2023, and has risen to second place among delivery app users after launching the 'unlimited free delivery' service for WOW membership members on March 26.

https://www.techm.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=122535&page=2&total=5473