[StartupRecipe] Angel Investors’ Role Growing in the Korean Startup Funding Market

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#Weekly Funding Overview

[May. 10 ~ May. 14 ]

The total funds raised by Korean startups of this week is KRW 95.85 billion.

Company	Industry	Amount	Round	Investors
Coffeechat	Career	-	Seed	Bon Angels Venture Partners
Life Lab	Cleaning	22 billion		DS Asset Management, Lotte Accelerator, Hana Ventures, Kakao Ventures, Altos Ventures, KTB Network, Capital One
Business canvas	Collaboration tool	2 billion		Mirae Asset Venture Investment, Shinhan Capital, Nextrans
Fitple	HR	850 million	Pre-Series A	SCHMIDT, Donghoon Investment, Primer
DSRV LABS	Blockchain	3 billion	Series A	KB Investment
Vispot	AI Video	4 billion	Pre-Series A	Bon Angels Venture Partners, Timewise investment, Shinhan Capital, Future Play, Access Ventures
Hyperithm	Blockchain	-		Wemade Tree
Tainai	Fintech	-		Klim Ventures
Perfect-storm	AR/VR	-		Yuanta Investment, IBK CAPITAL, NICE Investment Partners, Conar Investment
Future Play	Accelerator	10 billion	Series B	LG International, DB Financial Investment, FUTURERA, Hashed, Data Solution
GO2JOY	Accomodation	4 billion	Series A	SV Investment, HB Investment, Platform Partners
Ingine	Wave Power	4 billion		Korea Develpoment Bank
GBIKE	E-scooter	-	Series B	Strong Ventures, SBI Investment, Premier Partners, Yuanta Investment, Mirae Asset Venture Investment, Cymechs
Studio Origin	Media/Content	5 billion	Series A	Mirae Asset Venture Investment, Korea Investment Partners
Seerslab	AR	-		wyswyg
Medispan	Bio/Healthcare	6.5 billion	Series A	DSC Investment, TIGRIS investment, STASSETS Investment
Queenit	Fashion	5.5 billion		Kakao Ventures, CompanyK Partners, Bass Investment, Klim Ventures
Emocog	Digital therapeutics	-		Naver D2SF, Stonebridge Ventures, KaKao Ventures
EXCELLO	IOT	-	Series A	Industrial bank of Korea, Dongyu Investment
Sky labs	Bio/Healthcare	22.5 billion	Series B	Atinum Investment, Soo Investment, Korea Investment Partners, LB Investment, KB Investment, Moru Asset Management
Medipixel	Bio/Healthcare	6.5 billion	Series A	Mirae Asset Venture Investment, Mirae asset capital, Partners Investment, AI angel club, QUAD Investment Management
GTL	Space	-	Seed	Krypton
Seasoning	Brand curation	-	Seed	Hana Ventures,KAIST Venture Investment Holdings
Jchi	Material	-	Seed	CCEI Incheon

Major Funding

• Life Lab, the company operating home cleaning service Cleaning Lab, has raised KRW 22 billion in investment. The company is growing rapidly with 1.8 million cumulative orders and a 200% increase in sales every year.
• Rapport Labs, the operator of Queenit, a fashion app targeting women in their 40s and 50s, has secured KRW 5.5 billion in investment. The company achieved 1 million downloads within eight months since its launch and is planning to grow into the leading E-commerce platform for people in their 40s to 50s.
• StudioOrigin, a character entertainment studio, raised KRW 5 billion in investment. The company plans to develop character IPs and characters that target the global market with investments and start a full-scale character IP business in 2023.
• Go2Joy, which provides accommodation O2O services in Vietnam, raised KRW 4 billion in investment. The company plans to expand its accommodation business in Vietnam.

#Trend Analysis

Angel Investors’ Role Growing in the Korean Startup Funding Market

The formation of individual investment associations operated in Korea has exceeded 1 trillion Korean won. This is the highest amount ever since the registration system of individual investment associations took effect in May 2001. Angel investors also play a role in driving Korea’s second venture boom, with venture investments hitting new highs every year.

According to the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, the number of association funds operated by individual investment associations was KRW 1.623 trillion as of the end of March this year, and KRW 765.2 billion was invested in 2,300 companies.

An individual investment association is a combination formed by angel investors (individuals) or corporations to invest in startups and venture companies and earn profits and registered under the Venture Investment Act. Individuals or corporations can form the association, and less than 49 people must invest more than KRW 100 million in operating it for more than five years.

The number of associations continues to increase. This is due to the government’s effort to improve institutions. The government has strengthened policy support to boost investment to create a second venture boom.

First, corporations have been allowed to form associations since 2017. As a result, accelerators can create an association. Accelerators, which are required to invest 50% of their funds in early-stage businesses under three years, increased the formation of associations, and in turn, the size of funds also increased. In addition, as income deductions for individual investments expanded in 2018, more angel investors began to invest in ventures. Angel investors receive up to KRW 30 million (approx.). In addition, abundant market liquidity and easing investment requirements have boosted Korean angel investment.

Angel investors’ profiles were generally 45-year-old men living in Seoul and working in finance. The top areas they invest in are in the order of ICT services, retail, and bio.

SpoonRadio, a social audio platform, is a notable company that has succeeded in receiving investment through Angel Investment Association. The private investment association invested 300 million won in 2016 and earned back 9.6 billion won, making a 32x earnings.

The government plans to strengthen GP management and supervision functions to protect investors as the formation of associations increases while supporting the spread of the second venture boom.