[StartupRecipe] South Korea’s Proptech Market Rebounds in 2025

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South Korea’s Proptech Market Rebounds in 2025

After years of stagnation, proptech and real estate startup investments are beginning to rebound South Korea’s real estate and proptech startup investment market, which has been frozen for several years, is showing meaningful signs of recovery in 2025. According to data from Startup Recipe, annual investment amounts that had plummeted from KRW 486.25 billion in 2022 to KRW 94.35 billion in 2023 and KRW 96.95 billion in 2024 have already reached KRW 180.3 billion as of October 2025, surpassing last year’s total. The market sentiment is recovering somewhat as large-scale investments exceeding KRW 50 billion, which had disappeared for years, are making a comeback.

The key to this year’s investment rebound is concentrated capital inflows into major proptech players and construction tech companies. Proptech unicorn Zigbang raised KRW 60 billion, while modular construction company PlanM secured KRW 50 billion in pre-IPO funding, reviving the mega deals that had been absent since 2023. The combined investment in these two companies totals KRW 110 billion, accounting for 61% of total investments. This demonstrates that despite the downturn, capital is concentrating on a select few companies with proven growth potential and market dominance.

However, excluding these major investments, the overall market trend remains conservative. Apart from Zigbang and PlanM, only four companies raised more than KRW 10 billion, including The Hyusik (KRW 20 billion) and Gudo Planning (KRW 16.7 billion), with most investments staying below KRW 10 billion. This suggests that Series B and C scale-up investments remain sluggish, and the overall investment environment continues to face challenges.

Investment trends reveal a clear qualitative shift in the proptech market. Interest is moving beyond traditional real estate information and brokerage platforms toward technology-based solutions driving digital transformation (DX) in the industry. By sector, construction digitalization and contech attracted the most investment, followed by hospitality and accommodation, and real estate information platforms. Hospitality solutions are also evolving significantly. Startups related to accommodation and space operations such as The Hyusik, and Onda secured investments, reflecting a trend toward expanding service areas beyond simple space sharing to include operational automation and rebranding solutions. Additionally, a meaningful M&A case emerged as real estate big data platform Asil was acquired by Naver Pay.

While this year’s investment increase has injected vitality into a market that has been stagnant for years, whether the recovery will be sustained remains uncertain. According to government startup trend surveys, real estate sector startups in the first half of 2025 decreased by 12.8% year-over-year. On the positive side, leading players like Zigbang continue to attract large follow-on investments, and selective investments in technology-based B2B sectors such as contech and AI solutions are likely to continue. However, if the real estate market recovery is delayed and mid-sized investments exceeding KRW 10 billion fail to recover, market polarization could intensify further. The proptech sector stands at a crossroads: while mega deals signal renewed investor confidence in proven players, the broader ecosystem still awaits a more comprehensive recovery that extends beyond the industry’s top performers.

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