The South Korean startup ecosystem has grown over the past decade as main tech companies and enterprise capital from the West has sought to make inroads within the nation. No shock there: South Korea has lengthy been one in all Asia’s strongest economies. Startups right here have loved good entry to funding, benefiting from Large Tech corporations like Google, Meta, Qualcomm and Samsung organising operations regionally, in addition to from devoted enterprise arms. It additionally helps that the Korean authorities has spurred funding by organising innovation hubs, incubators and accelerators.
At this time, South Korea ranks ninth on the record of nations with the best variety of unicorns, per Statista, and its capital metropolis, Seoul, is taken into account one of many prime locations to construct a tech startup.
However like elsewhere on the planet, startups right here haven’t been proof against financial turmoil — tech companies have been slicing prices and laying folks off to take advantage of a diminished funding setting, startup valuations have dipped, and growth-stage funding has proved laborious to come back by. Asian startups usually have struggled to boost capital for the reason that market turned in early 2022, and in 2023, enterprise capital investments in South Korea dipped to round 5.4 trillion KRW ($4 billion) from 6.8 trillion KRW ($5.1 billion) a yr earlier, based on Statista.
Evidently 2024 will show to be a pivotal yr for a lot of startups within the nation, particularly as some massive names intend to go public both domestically or within the U.S. Right here’s an inventory of the highest startups to look out for:
Yanolja
- Founder: Su-jin Lee
- Complete funding raised: $1.95 billion
- Key buyers: SoftBank Imaginative and prescient Fund, GIC, Reserving, SkyLake Funding
- Income in 2023: $578 million (766.7 billion KRW)
A journey reserving platform based in 2005 by Su-jin Lee, Yanolja is finest identified for revisiting and pivoting the idea behind love lodges in Korea — turning them from locations identified finest for amorous assignations (rented for as little as one hour) into engaging short-term rental choices for hip younger folks and vacationers. At this time, it has operations in additional than 200 nations.
The startup joined the unicorn membership in June 2019 with a $180 million Collection D spherical led by Singapore’s sovereign fund, GIC and Reserving. And in 2021, SoftBank Imaginative and prescient Fund II invested about $1.7 billion in a Collection E that valued the startup between $7 billion and $9 billion.
Earlier this yr, Yanolja arrange a subsidiary in Manhattan, Yanolja US, to hurry up its transfer towards a Nasdaq itemizing. Final December, the corporate employed Alexandre Ibrahim, who had a stint on the New York Inventory Change, as its new chief monetary officer. Yanolja is reportedly getting ready to boost $400 million in its preliminary public providing within the U.S., which may worth the corporate between $7 billion and $9 billion.
Nonetheless, Singaporean e-commerce platform Qoo10’s liquidity disaster has emerged as an necessary variable in Yanolja’s itemizing on the Nasdaq. Yanolja bought Interpark Commerce to Qoo10 in April 2023 and was promised to be paid $127.8 million in installments by 2026, however Yanolja has not but acquired the remaining quantity.
Viva Republica (Toss)
- Founder: Seung-gun Lee
- Complete funding raised: $1.34 billion
- Key buyers: Alkeon Capital, Altos Ventures, Aspex Administration, Bond Capital, Goodwater Capital, GIC, Greyhound Capital, Kleiner Perkins, Korea Growth Financial institution, PayPal, Qualcomm Ventures, Ribbit Capital, Sequoia China
- Income in 2023: $994.1 million (1.37 trillion KRW)
Seung-gun Lee, a former dentist, based Viva Republica in 2015, the corporate behind the finance tremendous app Toss, as a result of he was fed up with the complexity of South Korea’s on-line fee programs. Lee was apparently not the one one uninterested in leaping via hoops to make funds, and his app rapidly took off. Three years later, Viva Republica hit unicorn standing after elevating $80 million. The corporate was final valued at about $7 billion (9.1 billion KRW) in December 2022 after a $405 million Collection G spherical. At this time, Toss has greater than 19 million month-to-month energetic customers.
Earlier this yr, Viva Republica employed advisers to go public subsequent yr in South Korea. It posted income of $994.1 million (1.37 trillion KRW) in 2023, and the corporate stated it’s prone to attain profitability this yr.
Kurly
- Founder: Sophie Kim
- Complete funding raised: $761 million
- Key buyers: Anchor Fairness Companions, Aspex Administration, CJ Logistics, DST International, Hillhouse, Hugh Ventures, Mirae Asset Enterprise Funding, Sequoia Capital China, SK Networks, Translink Capital
- Income in 2023: $1.5 billion (2.07 trillion KRW)
Kurly has harbored goals of an IPO for years, however it might lastly be capable to resume its itemizing plan.
Driving excessive on pandemic-driven tailwinds, the grocery supply service initially deliberate to record within the U.S. in 2021. However then it shelved these plans in favor of an IPO in Seoul in 2023. These plans ended up getting shelved, too, after the IPO window didn’t reopen totally in 2023.
The corporate final yr began diversifying its choices, promoting every part from high-end cosmetics to non-public care merchandise and dietary supplements because it sought to bolster its income and gross merchandise quantity forward of its IPO.
However an IPO could also be on the playing cards quickly: Kurly recorded its first worthwhile month in December 2023, marking a big milestone since its institution in 2015. The corporate has lengthy expressed its intention to pursue an inventory after turning into EBITDA-positive.
Kurly was final valued at round $3.3 billion when it raised a $210 million pre-IPO spherical in December 2021, however stories counsel the corporate’s price ticket has since shrunk to $669 million.
Dunamu
- Founder: Hyoung Kim and Chi-hyeong Track
- Complete funding raised: $522 million
- Key buyers: Anchor Fairness Companions, Altos Ventures Administration, Hana Monetary Group, Hanwha, Stonebridge Capital, Woori Know-how Funding
- Income in 2023: $751 million (1.02 trillion KRW)
Dunamu, the operator of Seoul-based cryptocurrency trade Upbit, began as a inventory buying and selling service in 2012 and launched a crypto trade in 2017. And in 2021, it turned the primary firm to accumulate a digital asset service supplier (VASP) license in South Korea.
At present South Korea’s largest cryptocurrency trade operator, Dunamu briefly loved a juicy valuation of about $17 billion in 2022, when the crypto business was nonetheless using excessive. However because the hype round crypto pale in 2023 following the collapse of Luna and FTX, the corporate’s worth equally plummeted to $2.2 billion.
Dunamu noticed an uptick in revenue within the earlier yr, stemming from the restoration of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. This resulted in a internet revenue of roughly $594 million in 2023, reflecting a 515.4% enhance from the earlier yr. Nonetheless, the corporate has encountered obstacles in diversifying its income sources and managing losses inside its subsidiaries. Dunamu is reportedly aiming to go public on the Nasdaq.
Musinsa
- Founder: Man-ho Cho
- Complete funding raised: $330 million (~ 430 billion KRW)
- Key buyers: IMM Funding, KKR, Sequoia Capital and Wellington Administration
- Income in 2023: $662.5 million (883 billion KRW)
Together with its Kakao’s vogue platform Zigzag, Korean retail large Shinsegae’s W Idea, and Naver-backed Brandi, Seoul-based vogue market Musinsa is without doubt one of the largest and hottest vogue marketplaces in South Korea. It affords greater than 8,000 native and overseas vogue manufacturers spanning various classes, together with informal, sports activities and luxurious to 13 million customers.
The startup claims its annual GMV crossed $2.35 billion (3 trillion KRW) in 2022 and that its income hit $662.5 million in 2022.
The corporate is reportedly in talks with funding banks to run its preliminary public providing in South Korea in 2025. Based in 2012 by CEO Man-ho Cho, the Korean vogue platform raised a $190 million Collection C spherical led by KKR that valued it at roughly $2.76 billion in July 2023.
Danggeun Market
- Co-Founders: Gary Kim, Paul Kim
- Complete funding raised: $205 million
- Key buyers: Altos Ventures, Aspex Administration, Capstone Companions, DST International, Goodwater Capital, Kakao Ventures, Reverent Companions, SBVA and Sturdy Ventures
- Income in 2023: $96.3 million
Based in 2015 by Gary Kim and Paul Kim, Danggeun Market runs Karrot, the hyperlocal market app for owned items. The platform has operations in South Korea, Canada, the U.Ok., the U.S. and Japan, and raised $162 million in a Collection D spherical at a valuation of $2.7 billion in 2021.
The corporate posted its first revenue in 2023 on the again of sturdy consumer progress within the U.S. and Canada. The corporate has since been anticipated to go public, however its CEO Gary Kim stated in Could that the corporate would think about an IPO after constructing a stronger monetary base.
Bucketplace (O!Home)
- Founder: Seungjae Lee
- Complete funding raised: $261 million
- Key buyers: BRV Capital Administration, Capstone Companions Korea, Industrial Financial institution of Korea, KB Funding and KB Funding & Securities
- Income in 2023: $181 million
Based in 2016, Bucketplace‘s residence adorning and inside app OHouse began off merely as a neighborhood of individuals sharing inside design content material. At this time, the corporate is providing quite a lot of providers that embody nearly every part concerned within the residential area, starting from residence enchancment, residence repairs and upkeep to furnishings supply, transferring providers and even a rubbish can pickup service.
The corporate final raised a $182 million Collection D spherical at a valuation of $1.4 billion in 2022. It not too long ago turned down an funding from China-based e-commerce large Alibaba, based on native media stories.
Bucketplace’s enterprise mannequin is just like Houzz, a California-based residence reworking software program platform that’s getting ready to go public as early as this yr.
Moloco
- Founder: Ikkjin Ahn, David Sehyuk Park
- Complete funding raised: $200 million
- Key buyers: DAOL Ventures, Draper Athena, EDBI, Constancy Administration & Analysis Firm, Mirae Asset, Samsung Ventures, Smilegate Funding, Tiger International Administration
- Income in 2023: $300 million
Moloco, an adtech startup that makes use of machine studying tech to construct cell campaigns, serves cell app builders in a variety of industries, like gaming, social networking, e-commerce, ride-sharing, meals supply and fintech, serving to them flip their first-party consumer knowledge into advertising, monetization and consumer acquisition campaigns.
The corporate was valued at greater than $2 billion after EDBI, a Singapore-based personal fairness and enterprise capital arm of the Singapore Financial Growth Board, acquired shares within the firm from one other investor.
The corporate had final raised $150 million in a Collection C spherical led by Tiger International Administration at a valuation of $1.5 billion in 2021.
Moloco intends to pursue a public itemizing on the Nasdaq and is at the moment assessing the suitable timing for its preliminary public providing, CEO Ikkjin Ahn stated throughout a press convention in Seoul in December 2023.
ZigBang
- Founder: SungWoo Ahn
- Complete funding raised: $248 million
- Key buyers: Altos Ventures, BlueRun Ventures, Goldman Sachs Funding Companions, Korea Growth Financial institution, Hana Monetary Group, and IMM Funding
- Income in 2023: $97 million
ZigBang, a South Korean proptech startup, raised roughly $77 million (100 billion KRW) in Collection E funding at a valuation of about $1.8 billion (2.5 trillion KRW) as its pre-IPO funding from the Korea Growth Financial institution, IMM Funding and Hana Securities in 2022. It acquired a good home-based business from Samsung SDS in January 2022 earlier than getting Collection E funding to enter the good residence business.
The Seoul-based actual property platform has been within the crimson for 3 years in a row, which is in step with the state of the actual property market within the nation.
Korea Credit score Knowledge
- Founder: Kelvin Dong-ho Kim, Seong-ho Lee
- Complete funding raised: $196 million
- Key buyers: D-Camp, Fiserv, GS Holdings, Hanwha Life, Kakao, KB Securities, Kclavis, KT Funding, LG Uplus, Morgan Stanley Tactical Worth, QUAD, Pavilion Capital, Playmake Ventures, Samsung Fireplace & Marine Insurance coverage
- Income in 2023: $103 million
Based in 2016, Korea Credit score Knowledge (KCD) is a Seoul-based fintech startup that provides an array of providers for two million small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) retailers in Korea. KCD launched its flagship service, Cashnote, a bookkeeping app for SMEs, in 2017 to allow SME house owners to trace a complete overview of cashflow, together with revenues, bank card gross sales, expenditures, gross sales ledgers, and coverage data.
The startup raised $77 million (100 billion KRW) in funding at a valuation of roughly $1 billion (~1.3 trillion KRW) from funding funds managed by Morgan Stanley Tactical Worth in August 2023. KCD is reportedly planning to go public in 2025.
