Startups & Innovation News Digest

Seoul - South Korea 

March 24, 2024

Daejeon City establishes a financial institution funded by local governments... the first in South Korea.

In July, a new technology business investment banking company wholly owned by Daejeon City is expected to be established. It is the first financial institution to be established by a local government.

Daejeon Mayor Lee Jang-woo held a briefing on the 21st and said, "On the 19th, we received the approval of the Ministry of the Interior and Safety for the establishment of Daejeon Investment Bank, a financial institution for new technology projects, and we are promoting it with the goal of establishing it in July."

https://n.news.naver.com/article/469/0000791663

Oh Young-joo-pyo's 'K-Global Star Fund' announced in April... Also includes 40% equity JV

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups and Korea Venture Investment (Hanventu) will announce more than 20 partners (management institutions) to manage the 'K-Global Star Fund' in the middle of next month. The K-Global Fund, which will be managed by the selected partners, is eligible for support for domestic small and medium-sized enterprises, ventures, and start-ups, but it has been confirmed that domestic companies with a stake of 40% or more are included in the fund, even if they are overseas corporations or joint ventures with domestic companies.

According to government officials on the 21st, the Ministry of SMEs and its affiliated agency, Hanventu, will finalize the partner company that will manage the K-Global Star Fund along with the existing manager of Hanvento's 'Overseas VC Global Fund' in the middle of next month.

https://n.news.naver.com/article/421/0007428876

VCs Without Climate Tech…Funding Waves Stronger

In Korea, LPs are paying attention to climate tech, and investment companies are also interested in creating climate tech funds. Currently, funds are being created around impact investment companies that make investments that have a positive impact on society and the environment and generate profits. However, as there is a great possibility of a large market being created, the prevailing view is that most management companies (GPs) are likely to be interested in it in the future. According to the investment banking (IB) industry on the 21st, a climate tech fund is being created that invests in △circular economy, △energy efficiency, △eco-friendly smart cities, and △eco-friendly new material companies, centered on impact investment companies.A representative example is Sopoong Ventures, a venture capital (VC) firm that invests in early-stage startups in the impact field. Sopoong Ventures recently formed the first 'Impact Picnic Investment Fund No. 2' fund worth 25 billion won with the goal of multi-closing within the year. It will invest in domestic and foreign climate tech startups, and will discover companies that can innovate the value chain such as materials, components, and waste battery circular economy in the battery field. The investment will be led by Ji Hyun-seok, who was recruited by LG Energy Solution at the end of last year to be in charge of investment in the energy sector.

https://n.news.naver.com/article/018/0005697784

Immediate investment of 100 million won'... Spring Camp, Accelerating Program Recruitment

Campfire is Spring Camp's accelerator program that aims for the compressive growth of early-stage startups. Spring camp has invested in campfire starters more than once. So far, 34 out of 41 teams have made follow-up investments.

Startups selected for the program can receive an investment of 100 million won and office space. 'IR Day' also provides an opportunity to attract follow-up investments. In Season 7 IR DAY, more than 20 investment companies participated, and the participating team, Real Draw, received follow-up investment.

At Campfire, one investment reviewer is assigned to each selected team as the person in charge and a plan is made together to achieve the goal in four months. Every two weeks, the plan and execution are reviewed and preparations are made to attract follow-up investments. Each participating team will also be provided with documents to understand the market, initial customer acquisition, investment strategies, and other aspects of the investor's perspectiv

https://n.news.naver.com/article/008/0005015352

World's 4th Ranked... Korean Start-up ranked on the top list in Generative AI

According to the global generative AI web service usage ranking released by Endrisson Horowitz, a venture capital firm in Silicon Valley in the U.S., on the 19th (local time), LINER ranked fourth after OpenAI's ChatGPT, Google's Gemini, and Character.AI. The only Korean service in the top 50 is LINER. It is ranked higher than Anthraffic's AI chatbot 'Claude' (10th) and image-generating AI 'Midjourney' (14th), which were invested by Amazon and Google. Character.AI, which came in third place, is an AI chatbot that can create and converse with historical figures or movie characters, and is popular among young people in the United States.

https://n.news.naver.com/article/023/0003823622

Obesity and health management will be solved with "digital health"... Kakao Ventures invests in Vivid Health and Gazi Lab

On the 20th, Cheon Ye-seul, CEO of Vivid Health, introduced 'Biyak / 삐약' at the Kakao Ventures Brownback Meeting held in Yeoksam-dong, Gangnam-gu. Biyak / 삐약 is scheduled to be released in April as a community app focused on users with obesity. Vivid Health focused on the rapid emergence of obesity treatments as a new option for dieters who repeatedly failed by relying on exercise, diet, and personal will. 

"The trend of sales of obesity drugs in Korea has increased to 89% as of 2022 since 2018 when Saxenda 삭센다 entered Korea," said Cheon Ye-seul, CEO of Vivid Health. "The sales of obesity drugs by country are also distributed among the top in the world at 145.3 billion in Korea."

https://www.techm.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=121858&page=2&total=5408

WeMix Foundation Unveils New Talknomics... To Recineration Reserve and Introduce Half-Lives

The WEMIX Foundation announced on the 21st that it will burn part of the reserve volume and introduce a halving in order to realize a growth-oriented and sustainable economy. The new tokenomics will take effect on July 1.

Since January, the WEMIX Foundation has been implementing a policy of 'reducing the total supply' to keep the total issuance of the utility coin WEMIX (WEMIX) below 1 billion. The foundation explained that it decided to revamp tokenomics in order to promote mutual growth of the ecosystem and community, and to solidify the status of WEMIX Coin.

First, about 400 million of the total reserves held by the WEMIX Foundation will be burned at once, excluding the minimum ecosystem development fund. 40% of the ecosystem development fund will be distributed for community promotion and marketing to promote the WEMIX ecosystem, and the remaining 60% will be actively used for investment and partnerships for the development of the ecosystem.

35% of the revenue generated from the ecosystem development fund will be used to enhance the value of WEMIX, such as purchasing and burning WEMIX. The principal is returned to the ecosystem fund and reinvested. Through this, WEMIX will establish itself as a healthier blockchain project represented by Wemade, WEMIX 3.0 node council partners (40 Wonders), investors, and developers, centered on the community.

https://www.techm.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=121963

KB Kookmin Bank discovers and nurtures promising startups for a sustainable society

KB Kookmin Bank announced on the 20th that it is recruiting the 4th generation of the 'KB Unicorn Club', which discovers and nurtures startups in new industries as part of its win-win finance practice for a sustainable society.

The 'KB Unicorn Club', which started in 2021, is a growth support program for innovative technology-based startups. Participating startups can receive support in various ways, from expert mentoring to free office space and investment linkage.

The target of this recruitment is start-up companies with items in the field of promising future technologies such as ▲ super gap ▲ fintech ▲ content. Until last year, it was recruited for startups with less than 3 years of experience, but from this year, the scope of the target has been expanded by excluding the business experience requirement. From April to December, 10 startups selected for the 'KB Unicorn Club' will be provided with opportunities to grow into unicorn companies, such as ▲ investment review at the Gyeonggi Creative Economy Innovation Center ▲ linkage with external investors ▲ in-depth mentoring by experts ▲ free provision of office space in Pangyo, Gyeonggi-do ▲ public relations ▲ customized acceleration support for excellent companies. The application period is until April 16, and applications for participation can be made on the website of the Gyeonggi Creative Economy Innovation Center.

https://www.techm.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=121871&page=2&total=5408