[StartupRecipe] Bio/Healthcare Leads Q1 2025 Startup Investment in Korea

#Weekly Funding Overview

[Mar. 24~ Mar. 28]

Company	Inudustry	Amount	Round	Investors
Fassto	Logistics	-
Teuida	Edtech	-	Series A	JB Investment
FL Company	Food	-	Seed	CNTtech
Dime Bio	Bio	12 billion	Series A	Partners Investment, Meritz Securities, Samho Green Investment, IBK Industrial Bank, Medytox Venture Investment, Cornerstone Partners, Myriad Life Sciences
Arch Seoul	QR Order solution	-	Series A	SBI Investment
Risorious	Healthcare	-		Kaist Ventures, MYSC, ZD Ventures, Impact Foundation
CXX	Beauty brand	-		ifamily
Gudo Planning	Real estate	16.7 billion
Vetflux	Pettech	1.3 billion	Pre Series A	DB
JUMJUM	Fortune teller platform	1 billion		Keyple
Sevenline Labs	esports	-		Kukita
BHSN	AI Legal	10 billion	Series B	Altos Ventures, Korea Development Bank, Woori Financial Capital
RFON	Defense AI	1 billion		Enlight next super star Venture Fund
Immunomelink	Healthcare	-	Seed	Seoul Techno Holdings
Worksmate	Blue color career matching	4 billion	Series B	Cooplnext Korea, D&Eventment, ES Investor, JB Investment
Nelna	Lifestyle brand	-	M&A	Fllexcl
Podonos	Voice AI	1 billion	Pre-Seed	Kaist Ventures, Serac Ventures
Paywork	Fintech	-		Infobank
리펀디	Fintech	200 million	Pre-Seed	Antler Korea
Re-Vision	Sportstech	200 million	Pre-Seed	Antler Korea
FELZ	Pettech	200 million	Pre-Seed	Antler Korea
Persly	Healthcare	200 million	Pre-Seed	Antler Korea
Papery	Contech	200 million	Pre-Seed	Antler Korea
Obud	Wellness	200 million	Pre-Seed	Antler Korea
Careus	Kids care	200 million	Pre-Seed	Antler Korea
Silentsky	Drone	200 million	Pre-Seed	Antler Korea

#MAJOR FUNDING

Gudo Planning has secured over 16.7 billion won in investment. As a company specializing in real estate development and hotel/residence operations, this investment will be used to expand into the hotel, residence, and multi-family markets.
Daim Bio has raised 12 billion won in Series A funding. As a drug development biotech company, the investment will be used to complete Phase 1 clinical trials for their next-generation targeted anticancer drug ‘DM5167’ and to begin non-clinical toxicity testing for their neurodegenerative disease treatment ‘DM3159’.
BHSN has secured 10 billion won in Series B funding. As a legal tech company operating the law-specialized AI solution ‘Allibee’, they plan to enhance their proprietary legal AI technology and expand marketing activities.

#TREND ANALYSIS

Bio/Healthcare Leads Q1 2025 Startup Investment in Korea

South Korea’s startup investment landscape in the first quarter of 2025 was dominated by the bio and healthcare sector, which attracted the highest share of funding. According to data from Startup Recipe, 42 startups secured investments exceeding 10 billion won, with bio/healthcare leading at 37.8% of the total investment volume. Manufacturing and consumer tech followed, while sectors such as real estate/proptech, gaming, edutech, and blockchain failed to secure any investments above the 10 billion won mark.

Despite the challenging investment climate, the bio/healthcare sector continued to draw steady funding. Beauty medical platform Healing Paper secured the largest investment in this sector, raising 42.8 billion won in a Series C round. Investors primarily targeted high-growth areas, including AI-driven medicine, big data-powered personalized healthcare, and digital healthcare solutions and medical devices.

In the manufacturing sector, smart factory solution provider Sizl led with a 23.7 billion won investment. Robotics companies JLT and Contoro Robotics also secured significant funding, raising 23 billion won and 17.5 billion won, respectively. Investment activity in this sector was concentrated on smart factories, robotics, and battery-related technologies.

The consumer tech sector, which had seen a downturn due to waning interest in platform businesses, is now regaining traction. Investors are focusing on beauty, food, and lifestyle companies targeting global markets. Platforms offering specialized services, particularly in single-person households, premium beauty, and home lifestyle segments, are drawing renewed investor interest.

Amogy, a developer of zero-carbon power generation systems, recorded the largest single investment of the quarter at 81.6 billion won. However, apart from Amogy’s success, the environmental, energy, and sustainability sector did not see significant funding activity. Meanwhile, AI-focused startups continued to attract large-scale investments. AI agent developer Enhans raised 17 billion won, synthetic data technology firm GenGen AI secured 12 billion won, and AI business messenger provider Channel Corporation received 11 billion won.

By investment stage, pre-IPO companies received the highest amount of funding, followed by Series B and Series A startups. It was particularly notable that several Series A companies, including Doeat (30.6 billion won), Contoro Robotics (17.5 billion won), Connecteve (14 billion won), GenGen AI (12 billion won), and Doers (10 billion won), managed to secure substantial investments. Best Innovation stood out by raising 23 billion won at the seed stage, an exceptionally high figure for early-stage funding.

Key investors in the first quarter included Korea Investment Partners, KDB Development Bank, Partners Investment, and IBK Industrial Bank, all of which were actively investing. Global investors such as Aramco Ventures, Temasek, Mitsui OSK Lines, Amazon Industrial Innovation Fund, and BASF Venture Capital also participated, though their focus was mainly on U.S.-based companies founded by Koreans, such as Amogy and ActIon. However, the absence of new global investors beyond established firms like Altos Ventures and Goodwater Capital was seen as a notable shortcoming.