[StartupRecipe] Early Investors Favor Pet, Kids, and Senior Tech

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#Weekly Funding Overview

[Mar. 11 ~ Mar. 15]

The total funds raised by Korean startups of the week is KRW 150.9 Billion.

Company	Industry	Amount	Round	Investors
Clify	Mental wellness	1.2 billion	Seed	Dunamoo&Partners, 500Global
Vagechips	Gen AI	-	Seed	The Invention Lab
Bigpicture interactive	esports	13.3 billion	Series C	Daesung Venture capital, Hana Ventures, Smilegate Investment, Woori Venture Partners, DT&Investment, Daishin Securities,
Captianbong	fishery ecommerce	-	Seed	Jeonbuk venture investment association
Promedius	Healthcare	11.2 billion	Series A2	Stasset Investment, Korea Investment Partners, Woori Venture Partners, Crit Ventures, Big Move Ventures
Coloeum Corp	Fulfillment	-		Hyosung Ventures
Bearrobotics	Robotics	80 billion		LG Electronics
Cloudmate	Cloud	15 billion	M&A	Ahnlab
ibex medical systems	Healthcare	6.6 billion	Seed	Capstone Partners, Smilegate Investments, Seegene medical foundation
Testbank	Edutech	2.3 billion	Pre-Series A	Shinhan Capital, Sui Generis Partners, Kodit
Plume D	3D Avatar	-	Pre-Series A	Postech holdings, D.camp
CIS Chemical	Secondary battery	10 billion	Pre IPO
Daqda	Memorial service	-		Vaiv Company
Farmjoa	Farmtech	-		Hite Jinro
Ulift	Edutech	4 billion	Series A	Bon Angels Venture Partners, Access Ventures, Pathway Partners, Cosine Investments
Algocare	Healthcare	15 billion	Series A	Stasset Investment, Company K Partners, Murex Partners, L&S Venture Capital, JB Investment, Maple Investment Partners, IBK
BGT Company	Beauty branding	-	Pre-Series A	Bokwang Investment
RNR Lab	Manufacturing	1.8 billion		Kclavis
Sionic AI	AI	5.5 billion	Seed	Korea Investment Partners, Hillspring Investment, Samsung Venture Investment, IMM Investment

#Major Funding

• Autonomous service robotics startup BearBotics raised $60 million from LG Electronics, making it the largest shareholder in the company and launching its commercial robotics business.
• Healthcare startup AlgoCare raised 15 billion won in investment. The company provides nutrition management service ‘Algocare at Work’ for companies, analyzing user health data and formulating customized nutritional supplements based on AI.
• Esports platform Big Picture Interactive secured 13.3 billion won in investment. The company operates education company GameCoach and online and offline competition platform LVUP.GG. The investment will help the company consolidate its business infrastructure and accelerate its global expansion.

#Trend Analysis

Early Investors Favor Pet, Kids, and Senior Tech

Consumer tech B2C platforms were once the darling of investors, fueling the rise of Korean unicorn startups. However, the tide has turned towards B2B startups, with fewer platforms securing substantial funding. Despite the decline in platform popularity, early-stage investments are still being made in promising growth themes.

In particular, three sectors – pet tech, kids tech, and senior tech – have continued to see early-stage investments this year after a slow year for investment. Among them, pet tech solutions are attracting the most interest from investors.

The pet market has grown to more than 4 trillion won, surpassing the childcare market, and government support policies are supporting the growth of the market. As of the end of February, 5 startups in pet healthcare, pet insurance, and e-commerce have already announced early-stage investments.

The childcare and kidcare sector is also receiving early investments due to its growth potential despite a declining birth rate. While platforms that fill the childcare gap have received attention from investors, parenting information and community services, and e-commerce for kids’ clothing (resell) have recently received early investment news. Additionally, services targeting kids in various fields such as activities, content, education, and fintech are gaining traction globally.

In the age of aging, senior platforms focusing on life beyond senior care, such as travel, activities, and communities, are succeeding in early-stage investments. They are highly regarded for their growth potential as services that enrich the lives of seniors with social value to solve aging issues.

While the three investment themes mentioned are still dominated by early-stage investments, they are growing sectors with social change and are expected to continue to attract interest from investors looking to capture new market opportunities.