[StartupRecipe] Krafton IPO: choosing a rode no one has ever taken

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#Weekly Funding Overview

[July. 26~ July. 30]

The total funds raised by Korean startups of this week is KRW  118.73 billion.

Company	Inudustry	Amount	Round	Investors
Cenaclesoft	Bio/Healthcare	12.6 billion	Series B	Kakao Ventures, Murex Partners, Dunamu & Partners, Asan foundation
uh2sa	Ecommerce	-	Pre-Series A	CRIT VENTURES, Hansae yes24 Partners
Rapport Labs	Fashion	10 billion	Series A	Atinum Investment, Softbank Ventures, ComapnyK Partners, Bass Investment, Klim Ventures,
Widebrain	Media/Content	300 million	Seed	Alchemista Partners
Cell in Cells	Bio/Healthcare	12 billion	Series B	kolmar holdings, Korea Investment Partners, L&S Venture Capital, Ulmus Investment, JX Partners
Aha Moment	Ecommerce	-	Seed	Bon Angels Venture Partners
Desilo	Data Analysis	6 billion	Series A	D2SF, KB Investment, Schmidt, Bon angels partners
MoneyBrain	AI	40 billion	Series B	Korea Develpoment Bank, IMM Investment, NVESTOR, KDB Capital, Posco Capital, L&S Ventures Investment
Studioeon	Media/Content	6 billion		QUAD Investment Management, Scaleup Ventures, Kona Venture Partners, NH Investment & Securities
Buysell Standards	Fintech	-	Seed	KB Investment
EasyEndo Surgical	Bio/Healthcare	30 billion	Series A	Korea Development Bank, Capstone Partners, KT Investment, BSK Investment, Nice Venture partners
LIBEST	Battery	10 billion	Series B	Posco holdings, KB, sOil, Unid, KB Securities
YIQIRich	Ecommerce	200 million	Seed	AI Angel club, Korea Venture Investment
OSYUNSEU BIO	Bio/Healthcare	230 million	Seed	Series Ventures, The Ventures
Nuvilab	Food Waste	-		Naver D2SF
Meshkorea	Last mile delivery	-		KB Investment, Korea Development Bank
BI Company	Funeral	-	Seed	KAIST Venture Investment Holdings
Mosaic funding	Fintech	-	Seed	K Accelerator
GNA Company	Game	2 billion		Laguna Investment, JB Ventures,
Buen Camino	Fintech	100 million	Seed	K Accelerator
HMC NETWORKS	Senior Care	-		Samsung fire
Inno Space	Space	25 billion	Series B	Company K Partners, Kolon Investment, Intervest, Future Play, Schmidt, SV Investment, L&S Ventures capital, Shinhan Venture Investment, Tony Investment, Kolon Glotech
Geniner	Bio/Healthcare	-	Seed	Seoul Techno Holdings
Dnature Bio Labs	Bio/Healthcare	3.5 billion	Series A	Dadam Investment

Major Funding

• Moneybrain, an artificial intelligence technology company, raised 40 billion won in investment. The company has source technologies such as deep learning-based chatbots, video synthesis, and voice synthesis and is expanding its business to AI announcers and AI kiosks.
• Senaklesoft, a digital healthcare startup based on Cloud Electronic Medical Records (EMR), finalized 12.6 billion won in investment. It provides an all-in-one hospital information system that integrates pre-screening engines and medical waiting screens necessary for hospital operation with electronic charts that compensate for existing EMR shortcomings.
• Innospace, a developer of small satellite rocket launchers, raised 25 billion won in investment. It has hybrid rocket propellants as its core technology, and investors are investing in the growth of small satellite markets.
• 4050 Women’s fashion app Queen-It’s operating company RapportLabs raised 10 billion won in investment. It secured more than 300 brands, including BCBG and Marie Claire, in just 11 months. It achieved 1.7 million cumulative downloads—reinforcement of AI-based recommendation service development and new categories with the investment.
• Desilo, a technology startup for homogeneous encryption (encryption data analysis and transaction), closed 6 billion won in investment. Desilo’s trading platform blocks sensitive information leakage and implements smooth analysis and transactions of data combinations between companies. The beta version will be released within this year.

#Trend Analysis

Krafton, a Korean game developer known for Battleground, has confirmed its initial public offering price at 498,000 won, which is the top of its suggested range.

The estimated market capitalization after going public is expected to be around 24.4 trillion won. Based on the fixed public offering price, the fund for the public offering is 4.3 trillion won, the second-largest public offering in history.

Krafton’s Battleground, a new game genre called Open World Battle Royale, gained colossal popularity right after its release and has been recognized as a global mega-IP. Battleground is one of the world’s best-selling games and the only game to simultaneously top the U.S. and Chinese markets. It has also established itself as a ‘national game’ in India and the Middle East.

Krafton announced its plan to focus on global content investment and mergers and acquisitions at a media conference to promote its growth strategy and vision after the company went public a week ago. 70% of the funds obtained through this IPOP will be used as M&A funds to secure promising IPs and developers.

Krafton had a controversy over its high valuation even before its listing. Although Battleground, which was released in 2017, was a massive success in the global market, it was pointed out that it is highly dependent on a single game. Krafton announced its plan to continue its growth by expanding IP to various entertainments such as dramas, animations, and movies based on strong IPs created through games, citing PUBG Universe. It also announced plans to release new games such as Battleground: NEW STATE and survival horror game The Callisto Protocol based on the Universe’s worldview. It also announced that it will focus on deep learning and provide an enhanced interactive experience. Ultimately, it will develop virtual friends that can interact in real-time and produce immersive content.

Krafton recently published a book called ‘Krafton Way,’ which is about the growth of Krafton. The book is gaining massive popularity among Korean startups. It is gaining great sympathy from Korean startup founders by dealing with struggles from founding Krafton to overcoming early failures and launching Battlegrounds to achieving success.