[StartupRecipe] Game startup funding hits three-year low

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#Weekly Funding Overview

[Jan. 1 ~ Jan. 5]

The total funds raised by Korean startups of this week is KRW 99.7 Billion.

Company	Inudustry	Amount	Round	Investors
Frankit	Logistics	-	Seed	AIangel-CNTTech
Hellomypet	Pet healthcare	-	Seed	CNTtech
Le Musee	Digital Artmarket	-		Cnttech-DB
GOQUAL	Home IoT	-	Series B	LG Electronics, Kiwoom Securities, Tuya Global, Kolon Investment, Ryukyung PSG Asset Management, NH Hedge Asset Management
Mainline	IDP	27 billion	Pre IPO	Hyundai Investment Partners, Intervest, Kolon Investment
Mobilint	Edge NPU Solution	20 billion	Series B	DaesungPE, GameChanger Investment, Intervest, Korea Development Bank, KDB Capital, Kyobo Securities, Union Investment Partners,
42Maru	AI	10 billion		LG U+
ALIGO AI	Advertisements	200 million	Seed	Seoul Techno Holdings
Easytask	Geek worker matching	-	Pre-Series A	Pacemakers
Oneness	Digital Human	-	Grant	TIPS
Cami	Pet	-	Seed	Cnttech-DB
Space Vision AI	Advertisements	-	Seed	Vine Ventures, Fast Ventures, The Ventures, Lotte Ventures, D.camp
Inups	Energy solution	-		LS Sauter
Stradvision	Self driving solution	42 billion		Aptiv
Btenergy	Clean energy	-	Seed	Y&Archer
Archseoul	Digital QR	-	Pre-Series A	ENSL Partners
ILL School	Hiphop beat platform	-	Seed	Cnttech
Capsule media	Media	-	Series A	Knet Investment, Hana Securities
Gloud	Digital health	500 million	Seed	Kodit
Aging craft	Foodtech	-		Y&Archer, Vine Ventures

#Major Funding

• Stradvision, a self-driving software development company, has attracted a $33 million investment from Aptiv, one of the top three companies in the autonomous driving sector. Following the investment, Aptiv has become one of Stradvision’s major shareholders, bringing Stradvision closer to an IPO.
• Mainline, an IDP specialist company, secured a 27 billion won investment. Mainline specializes in IDP technology fused with generative AI, with a focus on insurtech within the IDP sector. Over 10 major insurance companies have adopted Mainline solutions.
• 42Maru secured a 10 billion won investment from LG Uplus. Providing B2B services such as AI-based search ‘QA42,’ chatbot ‘Chat42,’ and optical character recognition (OCR) ‘NL42,’ 42Maru is set to collaborate with LG Uplus through this investment.
• AI edge AI Chip, Mobilint attracted a 20 billion won investment. The investment will be utilized for mass-producing the AI semiconductor, ARIES, and developing next-generation chip REGULUS.

#Trend Analysis

In 2023, securing funding for gaming startups proved challenging, regressing to 2020 levels and amounting to KRW157.8 billion, signifying a 50% decrease from the previous year. While unicorns like N Pixel, Hagin, and Shiftup emerged in 2021 and 2022, 2023 saw no such successes. Government data for the first three quarters revealed a 50.4% drop in venture investment in the gaming sector compared to 2022, falling even below 2019 levels.

Game startups had garnered attention from both investment institutions and game companies. However, an analysis suggests that a downturn in the domestic game industry led to reduced investments from major game companies, and the overall stagnant market conditions may have contributed to the decline. Additionally, the waning popularity of metaverse and blockchain-related fields might have played a role in the reduced investment in game startups.

Despite the overall dip in investment, companies founded by individuals with prior gaming industry experience continued to attract funding. Notably, the importance of member capabilities and game content differentiation grew in significance for investment decisions. Examining the investment stages revealed a predominant focus on early-stage investments, with seed investments making up more than half and a scarcity of Series B and higher investments.

Anticipating a positive shift, 2024 is expected to bring about an improved investment environment with interest rate cuts. This is anticipated to breathe new life into investment sentiment within the gaming sector.