South Korean Startup Funding Roundup: Year-End 2020
Investment news for Korean startups from December 28, 2020, to January 3, 2021:
Twenty-two funding rounds were reported in the final week of 2020. Most investments were directed toward early-stage startups at the Pre-A and Seed stages.
Dongnae, a prop-tech startup, secured KRW 4.5 billion (US$4.1 million) in seed funding. Flybridge led the round, which also included MetProp, Goodwater Capital, Maple VC, and various angel investors from South Korea and the United States.
Former executives from WeWork Korea and WeWork APAC co-founded the company.
The Jeju startup ecosystem announced funding for six early-stage startups. Jeju, an island off the southern coast of South Korea, has been developing its startup community.
The funding rounds were categorized as follows:
- Pre-IPO & Series B: 3 companies
- Series A: 3 companies
- Pre-A Stage: 5 companies
- Seed Stage: 11 companies
The original report provided detailed information about each funding round, including company names, investment amounts, business models, and investors.
1. Pre-IPO & Series B
Startup | Amount | Business Model | Investor(s) |
(Pre-IPO) | KRW 16B (US$ 15M) | Proteomics-Based Early Breast Cancer Blood Test Solution | SmileGate Investment Premier Partners BNH Investment KCLAVIS Investment Focus Asset Management NH Investment & Securities Meritz Insurance Dreamstone Partners |
KRW 11.2B (US$ 10M) | Radar for Autonomous Driving | Korea Investment Partners BSK Investment GU Equity Hemi Ventures Nexty Electronics SPARX Group | |
KRW 8B (US$ 7.4M) | Glasses for AR based on Pin MR technology | Naver D2SF KDB Capital IBK Capital |
2. Series A
Startup | Amount | Business Model | Investor(s) |
KRW 4B (US$ 3.7M) | Healthcare data aggregation, analysis, and reward model for users. | GI Biome | |
KRW 2.5B (US$ 2.3M) | Shoe size recommendation solution based on IoT | Capstone Partners Sparklab Shinhan Capital KODIT TBT | |
Studypie | KRW 2.15B (US$ 2M) | Online Tutoring brokerage platform | Altos Ventures Qualson |
3. Pre-A Stage
Startup | Amount | Business Model | Investor(s) |
Adoba | KRW 1B (US$ 0.92M) | MCN for the Chinese market | Union Investment Partners Laguna Investment |
DevStack | N/A | Cloud Virtualization Solution | Namu Tech |
FSC | N/A | eCommerce with Digital Goods | QUAD Ventures |
Hayan Mind | N/A | English Edtech | JB Ventures |
Nature Mobility | N/A | Car sharing Service | KOSMES KOMAX Ventures History Venture Investment |
4. Seed Stage
Startup | Amount | Business Model | Investor(s) |
DN Korea | KRW 4.5B (US$ 4.1M) | Proptech in the Real estate brokerage platform | Flybridge MetProp Goodwater Capital Maple VC |
Daeyang Intelligence | N/A | Library Management System | CCEI Jeju |
Like A Local | N/A | Domestic Inbound Traveler Matching | CCEI Jeju |
JeClean | N/A | Laundry O2O Platform | CCEI Jeju |
SGMA | N/A | Fishing Information System | Bridgesquare Y&Archer |
Weplay | N/A | Sports Facility Reservation and Matching | Bridgesquare |
TFORUS | N/A | Block coding editor SW | Bridgesquare |
Routinery | N/A | Habit Management | DHP The Invention Lab |
MedInTech | N/A | Medical Equipment | FuturePlay |
Resellground | N/A | Used Luxury Goods Bidding | Korea Venture Investment Yozma Group |
GenieRobot | N/A | Robotics | Next Challenge |