[StartupRecipe] Three fintech sectors still getting funded in Korea

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#TREND ANALYSIS

Three fintech sectors still getting funded in Korea

Korea’s fintech sector is in freefall. Investment totaled just KRW 152.5 billion ($115 million) through October 2025, according to StartupRecipe data. That’s down from KRW 171.5 billion in 2024, which itself cratered from KRW 1 trillion in 2023.The mega-rounds have vanished.

In 2022 and 2023, multiple companies raised over KRW 100 billion. Last year’s biggest check topped out at KRW 50 billion. This year’s largest round sits at a paltry KRW 35 billion. The era of KRW 100 billion funding rounds has completely evaporated.The extreme concentration where one or two companies hoovered up 60% of all capital has eased. But that’s cold comfort when the overall pie has shrunk by 85% in two years.

While consumer-facing fintechs are getting ghosted by VCs, three categories are still pulling in checks: AI-powered financial services, B2B SaaS, and cross-border payments. AI tax and insurance tools are leading the pack. Habit Factory, an AI insurance startup, scored the year’s largest round at KRW 35 billion. Zenterprise raised KRW 26 billion for tax automation. Hyeum (financial AI, KRW 10.5 billion) and Solomon Labs (tax AI, KRW 6.5 billion) also landed among the top deals. Robo-advisors, once the darling of fintech investors, are now dead in the water.

The B2B shift is real and accelerating. Nearly every top-funded company this year sells enterprise software, not consumer apps. The reason is simple: subscription revenue is predictable, customer acquisition costs are lower, and you can actually show ROI to your board.

Startups targeting small businesses and SMEs are particularly hot. These segments want digital transformation but are underserved by traditional banks. That creates room for fintech upstarts to differentiate. Cross-border financial services have exploded from niche to mainstream. TravelWallet (foreign currency payments) raised KRW 16.1 billion, while Hanpass (financial services for foreigners in Korea) pulled in KRW 10 billion.

Fractional investment platforms have lost all investor interest. The security token offering (STO) market opened up, bringing big corporations into the space. But startup funding remains minimal. The same story applies to robo-advisors, which dominated conversations just a few years ago.

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