[StartupRecipe] Contactless services on the rise after COVID

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#Weekly Funding Overview

[Fab.22 ~ Fab.26]

The total funds raised by Korean startups of this week is KRW 85.9 billion.

Company	Inudustry	Amount	Round	Investors
FreeWheelin	Education	5 billion	Series A	Altos Ventures, DSC Investment
Barogo	Delivery	2.5 million		11 street
Vgen	Energy	-	Seed	Future Play
Payhere	Fintech	-	Pre-Series A	Hashed
Modusign	SaaS	11.5 billion		Softbank Ventures, Breez Investment, KB Investment,
3billion	Bio/Healthcare	13 billion	Series C	MAGNA Investment, A ventures, Korea Investenet& Securities, Yuanta Investment, JW Asset
Jaranda	Education	7 billion		DAEKYO, DAEKYO INVESTMENT, Korea Develpoment Bank, Korea Investment Partners
Jobis & Villains	SaaS	6.5 billion	Series B	Atinum Investment, HB Investment, We Ventures, Capstone Partners
Handys		2 billion		DSC Investment, Spring Camp
DOSI GROUP	Fashion	-		The Ventures, Spring Camp, Musinsa Partners
ModooVentures	Prophtech	3 billion		Mirae Asset Venture Investment, SL Investment
Second Syndrome	Shared storage	-	Series B	KTB Network
Gollala	Fashion	400 million		Angels
Nodalab		-	Seed	Sopoong Ventures, Sparklabs
Wooltariusa	Food	2.2 billion	Series A	Primer sazze partners, Supigen
Standard mining	blockchain	-
Supertone	AI audio	4 billion		Big Hit Entertainment
Bueno Company	consumer	-	Seed	Series Ventures
Taling	education	14.7 billion	Series B	Mega study, NVESTOR, Shinhan Alternative Investment Management, DSC Investment
Channel oct	Video	-		F&F Partners
Rounded	Interior	3 billion	Series A	Union investment partners, UTC Investment
Poppingcar	Mobility	-	Seed	CN

Major Funding

• Barogo, a logistics IT platform startup, will raise KRW 25 billion in investment from 11th Street and push for a total of KRW 50 billion in Series C investment. Last year’s transaction volume was KRW2.916 trillion won, up 166 percent from 2019, and the company value is estimated to be more than KRW 350 billion. BaroGo focuses on recruiting research and development talent and expanding directly controlled businesses by investing and improving delivery quality.
• On-offline class platform Taling has raised KRW 14.7 billion in Series B investment. Starting with an offline class matching platform for tutors and students, the company has made a leap toward an on-offline integrated class platform by adding VOD video services. Through this investment, they are planning to expand their education business by investing in live-streaming and e-books.
• Modu Sign, simple electronic contract service, has secured an investment of KRW 11.5 billion. As contactless work accelerated, demand increased more than five times compared to last year, surpassing 1.08 million cumulative users, and 5.4 million cumulative signatures and documents.
• Jaranda, an infant-children education and care matching platform, raised KRW 7 billion in investment and recorded 11.1 billion won in accumulated investment. Characterized by providing learning together beyond simple care, Jaranda is rapidly growing in an educational environment that is changing due to COVID-19.

More Funding

• Superton, a company specializing in artificial intelligence audio, raised KRW 4 billion from Big Hit Entertainment.
• Interior Marketplace Rounded raised KRW 3 billion in a Series A investment from Union Investment Partners and UTC Investment.
• WOOLTARI USA, which distributes Korean premium foods in the U.S., raised KRW 2.2 billion in a series A funding.
• Handys, a lodging company, raised KRW 2 billion funding from DSC Investment and Spring Camp.

Undisclosed funding

• Bueno Company, which runs a mart information app, raised seed investment.
• Big data-based B2B trading platform NodaLab, raised seed investment from Sopoong ventures and Sparklabs.

#Trend Analysis

Contactless services on the rise after COVID

Contactless services are showing rapid growth, triggered by COVID-19. According to the corporate value analysis data released by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, companies in the contactless sector had a higher valuation (multiple of 11.5) than companies in that the face-to-face sector (multiple of 10.0) the past 6 years. The contactless companies chosen by the government representing the sector are BucketPlace running Today’s House (value: 644.5 billion won), e-book company Ridi (value: 429.6 billion won), and AI education company Ruiid (value: 175 billion won). All three companies are continuing to grow with investment and selected by the government as Preliminary Unicorns and Innovation Icons.

The excitement towards contactless services are shown just by looking at companies that have raised investment during the past week. B2B SaaS companies were especially notable, suited to the changing work environment due to COVID. ModooSign, electronic contract services raised 11.5 billion won in investment and Jobis & Villains, provider of corporate tax accounting services, has also succeeded in raising Series B investment of 6.5 billion won. Both companies, which have focused on securing users over the past few years, plan to use their newly raised funds to expand their businesses and recruit talent to preoccupying the market while continuing their growth. Barogo, the shipping platform that closed 25 billion won in investment from 11th Street, has also seen a significant increase in their company value. It was recognized as 350 billion won, which is three times more than the last round (series B) investment. This is the result of a surge in deliveries due to COVID leading to a significant increase in transactions. The company is pushing for a total investment of 50 billion won. 

Several online education platforms fit for the changing educational environment also reported news on investment. Taling, a matching platform for instructors and students that is integrating online and offline services, raised 14.7 billion won in investment, and Freewillin, which provides solutions for academy instructors, has grown nearly 20 times over the past four years and recently received 5 billion won in investment. In addition, Jaranda, the child care matching service, which solves the child care gap of children who stay at home due to COVID, reported 7 billion won in investment, and is the first company in related fields to exceed accumulated investment of 10 billion won.

According to the government, 320 companies were assessed to have value of more than 100 billion won, up 85 from 2019 (235). According to the survey, it took 9.2 years on average to achieve 100 billion won in corporate value. It is expected that the number of companies that have achieved 100 billion won in value will increase, as well as shortening the time to to achieve this milestone. This is because online companies, which have been growing in size by focusing on securing customers and upgrading services even before they were affected by COVID, are expected to maintain their growth in line with the trend of the post-COVID era.