[StartupRecipe] Childcare startups are in the limelight after COVID-19.

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#Weekly Funding Overview

[Dec. 6~ Dec.10]

The total funds raised by Korean startups of this week is KRW 65.9 billion.

Company	Inudustry	Amount	Round	Investors
Autopedia	Mobility	3 billion	Pre-Series A	CKD Venture Capital, Kudos Ventures, Halla holdings
Bigwave Robotics	Robotics	1.5 billion	Pre-Series A	Kakao Investment, KB Investment
Allonecare	Kidscare solution	-	Seed	CNTTech
Label Foundation	Blockchain	-		Solanium
Friendsmon	Education	-		ETRI Holdings
ClaimSwap	Blockchain	-		Wemade
Medipresso	Homecafe	-		SBA, BNK Busan Bank
Tactracer		-	GRANT	TIPS
CMES	Robotics	4 billion		GS Retail
Waklydoggy	Pettech	-	Seed	Kakao Ventures, Shinhan Capital
Redblue	Fitness SaaS	3 billion	Series A	GC Pharma,Shinhan Capital, Futureplay
Employeelabs	HR	-	Seed	Mashup Angels
Mintpot	VR	-		Shinsaegae INC
Oxopolitics	Politics Platform	2 billion		MYSC, OpenWater Investment, Nextran
sysolution	Food	-	Pre-Series A	CNTTech
Wineroute	Wine smartorder	-	Seed	BonAngels Venture Partners
Uprise	Fintech	24 billion	Series C	KTB Network, Capstone Partners, Seoul Investment Partners, Kakao Ventures
Kinolights	OTT search platform	-	GRANT	TIPS
Wellxecon	Fintech	-		Naver D2SF
Crazy Alpaca	Prophtech	-		Naver D2SF
2Digit	AI	-		BYON
DamhwaCompany	Beverage subscription	3 billion	Series A	KTB Network
JNPMEDI	Bio/Healthcare	-		Kakao Venture
Tour Staff	Shared mobility	3 billion	Pre-Series A	Alticast
Egreen Global	Agriculture	2.9 billion	Series B	ADB Ventures
Hilokal	Language Exchange	-	Pre-Series A	DOHE Korea
Doodlin	B2B HR	4.3 billion	Series A	Altos Ventures, Primer, Futureplay, Donghoon Investment, Schmidt
CJYK	Rental Platform	-	GRANT	TIPS
Oceans Bio	Bio/Healthcare	-	GRANT	TIPS
Twoytech	Interior	-	Seed	Yoonmin Foundation, Y&Archer
GPEX	Blockchain	1.1 billion		Spectrum Payment Solutions
Allo	Collaboration tool	6 billion	Pre-Series A	zoom, Atinum Investment
Coresight	Bigdata	-		Skytechnology
Business Canvas	Collaboration tool	5 billion	Series A	Xeno Investments Korea, Dunamu & Partners, Bluepointpartners, Kakao Ventures, Shinhan Capital,
Petprice	Pettech	600 million		Eugene Investment
Kangsters	Fitness	-	Seed	MYSC
Ordinarymagic	Kidscare	-	Seed	Seoul Techno Holdings
Division network	Blockchain	-		Republic Realm
Viralpick	Ecommerce	2.5 billion	Pre-Series A	HYUNDAI VENTURE INVESTMENT, L&S Venture Capital, KDB Capital
Moducompany	Parking Solution	-	M&A	Socar

Major Funding

• Uprise, operator of digital asset investment platform ‘Heybit’ and global ETF automatic investment service ‘Iruda Discretionary Investment’, raised 24 billion won and plans to come forward for customer acquisition.
• Collaborative whiteboard platform Allo secured a 6 billion won investment. Its MAU has increased tenfold compared to last year, and sales have more than doubled. With this investment, the company plans to recruit talent and expand its business area.
• Typed developer Business Canvas, an integrated documentation tool for knowledge management, raised 5 billion won. It has gained users from more than 140 countries currently. It will launch an official service next year and target the global market. 
• Corporate recruitment management solution Doodlin secured 4.3 billion won investment. It has won over 1,300 corporate customers, including Socar, Idus, Gangnam Unni. The company will use the funds to hire talent and upgrade its services.

#Trend Analysis

Childcare startups are in the limelight after COVID-19.

Corona 19 paralyzed the world, but it also promoted the emergence of new services and the growth of industries that were lagging behind. It was also an opportunity for child-related startups for parents who had not received much attention from investors. Investments have been concentrated on services that address the childcare gap created by the closure of childcare facilities due to COVID-19.

There have been several large-scale investments overseas led by famous VCs such as Sequoia Capital, Greylock Partners, Softbank, Andreessen Horowitz this year. Greenlight, a fintech service for kids, raised $260 million, while Zum, a ride-sharing service for children, raised $130 million. Job search platform for working moms, The Mom Project, secured $80 million, and childcare service provider Otter also secured $23 million.

This trend has been seen in Korea as well. Child-related platforms have emerged since 2016, but they have not received much attention from investors. This year, platforms that provide Korea’s leading childcare and education services, such as Jaranda, Tictoccroc, Momsitter, attracted large investments of nearly 10 billion won. Momsitter secured 10 billion won, while Jaranda and Tictoccroc secured 9.7 billion won and 7 billion won, respectively, twice this year alone. They raised nearly half of their cumulative investment this year. It shows how high investors’ interests in childcare were this year. In addition, the kid-fintech service Lemontree, which benchmarked Greenlight, secured 5 billion won in seed investment alone. Online kids school platform Gguge and school app Athena’s Lab also attracted investment.

As these services are related to children and childcare, the majority of companies have been established by female founders. More than 60% of companies that succeeded in fundraising, including Mfort, Jaranda, Tictoccroc, Lemontree, were established by women. In terms of the field, it seems that a large amount of money has been focused only on childcare services. Providing services in various fields for both children and parents, such as child health care, finance, and recruitment, is a task to be solved. Some funds, in the global market, invest exclusively in family services, thus expanding the market. However, there is no such trend in Korea yet.

However, investment in the family tech sector, including child-related services, is expected to accelerate further as female venture partners with parenting experience demonstrate strong performances and the number of millennial women willing to pay for childcare solutions increases.