[StartupRecipe] K-Content Startups See Surge in Investments, Entertain-Tech Takes the Lead

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#Weekly Funding Overview

[Oct. 28~ Nov. 1]

The total funds raised by Korean startups of the week is KRW 56 Billion.

Company	Inudustry	Amount	Round	Investors
Mithril	AI Solution	-	Seed	The Invention Lab
NUCODE	MCU module	-	Seed	Korea Investment Accelerator
Sterri	Streaming Event Platform	-	Grant	TIPS
Livewalk	Eco-friendly energy	-	Grant	Deeptech TIPS
NTEC BIOS	Bio	-	Grant	TIPS
ALLBIGDAT	Industrial AI solutions	-	Grant	Deeptech TIPS
Onepet	Pet Healthcare	-	Grant	TIPS
Invigo Works	Manufacturing AI Solution	-	Grant	TIPS
Hurotics	Medical Wearable Robots	-	Grant	Scaleup TIPS
Rimagin	Healthcare	-	Grant	TIPS
Flolounge	AI Flower Startup	-	Grant	TIPS
Contigo	HR	-	Grant	TIPS
Blistech	Healthcare	-	Grant	TIPS
4PMX	Healthcare	-	Grant	TIPS
Pnaseer	Bio	-	Grant	Deeptech TIPS
APGREEN	Clean hydrogen production	-	Grant	TIPS
Howlpot	Pet tech	-	M&A	Daekyo
RideFlux	Mobility	26 billion	Series B	Atinum Investment, Uanta Investment, Korea Investment Partners, Murex Partners, IBK Industrial Bank
GE Chemical	Plastic recycling	-	M&A	Shinhan Venture Investment PE, Rio Investment
Growv Education	Edutech	5.5 billion		KOSME
Red Dog Culture House	Sub culture content	-		STUDIO PIERROT
Inventera	Bio	18.5 billion	Series C	Dongguk Life Sciences, Dongguk Pharmaceutical, Yuanta Investment, NH Investment & Securities, Korea Innovative Drug Consortium, Medytox Venture Investment, Woori Venture Partners, Eugene Investment & Securities, Evergreen Investment Partners, Chungbuk CEEI
Hopae	Digital Identification Solution	6 billion	Seed	SV Investments, Z Venture Capital, BonAngels Venture Partners
Goondori	Millitary platform	-	Seed	History Venture Investment, Company X
BCDTech	Semiconductor	-	Seed	Y&Archer
Bel A Bel Bio	Functional Materials	-	Seed	Series Ventures
Terapin Studio	K-Digital Content	-		Affirma Capital
Clobot	Service Robot Software	-	IPO	KOSDOQ
Technomatrix	MLOps	-	Seed	Postech holdings
Lulu Medic	Healthcare	-	Pre-Series A	KDB Capital, Quantum Ventures Korea

#Major Funding

• Rideflux has secured a 20 billion KRW investment. Founded in 2018, this startup develops autonomous driving software platforms and offers its flagship autonomous driving solution, “ATHROAD.” The funds will be used to enhance autonomous driving technology and strengthen research and development efforts for global market expansion.
• Hopae has raised a 6 billion KRW investment. Established in 2022, the company provides next-generation digital identity infrastructure and services based on Decentralized Identity (DID) technology. Hopae is targeting the European digital identity market, valued at approximately 600 trillion KRW, and plans to offer solutions for this market.

#Trend Analysis

K-Content Startups See Surge in Investments, Entertain-Tech Takes the Lead

The Korean media and content industry has seen a remarkable surge in investment activity this year, with several companies securing over 100 billion won in funding. This positive investment trend stands in stark contrast to last year, when the highest investment in this sector was a mere 25 billion won, pushing it out of the top investment categories. If this momentum continues, the media and content industry is poised to make a strong comeback, reclaiming its position among the top 5 investment categories.

A key highlight of the current landscape is the surge of investments in the “entertain-tech” space. Investors have shown keen interest in platforms that can leverage entertainment content to drive global expansion. While the focus was previously on webtoon and web novel platforms, the current spotlight has shifted to short-form video platforms as the new investment hotspot.

Globally, short-form video platforms have been gaining significant traction, and in Korea, Spoonlabs has emerged as a rising star in this domain. Spoonlabs, which started as a radio-centric company, has launched a short-form video platform called “vigloo” and secured a staggering 120 billion won investment from Krafton. This is the largest investment deal in the sector this year, underscoring the market’s strong belief in the growth potential of short-form video platforms.

Adding to the momentum, Watcha, a struggling Korean OTT service, has announced its shift to profitability and a focus on expanding its short-form drama offerings, signaling its foray into this burgeoning market.

The global K-pop platform market has also seen remarkable growth, with platforms like Makestar securing 30 billion won in investment and expanding their reach beyond K-pop to encompass the broader K-culture landscape. Startups like Bigc and Spaceodity are also aggressively pursuing global expansion in this domain. The recent IPO preparations of entertain-tech startup Knowmerce further underscores the sustained growth potential of this market.

Even early-stage startups are making their mark, with ventures like Pi Corp, which focuses on developing and managing influencers for short-form content production, and aizentertainment, which secured 16 billion won in seed funding this year, garnering attention.

The virtual content production sector also remains popular, with platforms like Overthehand, 23i, and Scon securing stable early-stage funding to expand their foothold in the market. These include virtual YouTuber (VTuber) platforms and K-pop virtual idol producers.

The media and content industry is poised for continued growth, driven by the increasing global demand for content, the integration of AI technologies, and the expansion of the metaverse market. Korean startups, leveraging their strengths in K-content, are well-positioned to capitalize on these trends and attract further investment interest.