[StartupRecipe] Korean startup investment hit an all-time high in the first half of the year

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#Weekly Funding Overview

[July.25~ July.29]

The total funds raised by Korean startups of this week is KRW 89.8 billion.

Company	Industry	Amount	Round	Investors
Bobidi	AI Platfrom	7.5 billion	Seed	Hyundai Motor Zero One, Lotte Ventures, We Ventures, Meta, Atlas Pac Capital
Quriously	Online Class	10 billion		Hana Ventures, Nau IB Capital, DT&Investment, Industrial Bank of Korea, Korea Venture Investment
Celebe Korea	Shortform Social Media	-		Chosunref
SOC	Image Content	-	Seed	CNTTech
Tagby	Content Marketing	-		Futurestar
Cellar V	Wine D2C	-	Seed	Fast Ventures
Wonderweeks Company	Kids Content	-		GS Retail
Staybility	Prophtech	-		Sui Generis Partners, Info Bank, Geno Investement Asia
Nature Mobility	Mobility	10 billion	Series B	IBK Capital, Medici Investment, Central Investment Partners, Danal Investment Partners, Pathfinder H
ColorLover	Personal Color Matching	-	Seed	CNTTech
Jasoseol.com	Recruit	-	M&A	Drama&Company
SOSLAB	LAIDAR	19.3 billion	Series B	Emford Equity Partners, Ulmus Investment, BNK Investment & Securities, Korea Investment & Securities, Kiwoom Securities, Hanyang Securities, Synergy IB, ST Leaders, NH Hedge Asset Management, Six Bridge Asset Management
AX	Travel tech	4.3 billion	Series A	SJ Investment Partners, Magna Investment, NBH Capital
Rapport table	Foodtech	3.5 billion	Pre-Series A	Softbank Ventures, Bass Investment
Weebut	Engineer Recruit	400 million	Seed	Schmidt
Hanabiotech	Agriculture	-	Seed	Incheon CCEI
Airs medical	Healthcare	25.3 billion		Klim Ventures, Q Capital Partners,, Hanwha Life Insurance
Notag Korea	Fashion Crossboard	1.3 billion	Pre-Series A	Hi Investment Partners, Lotte Ventures
AlgoLab	Logistics	2 billion	Pre-Series A	Kodit, Nicegroup
Korea Mobility	Mobility	700 million	Seed	AI Angel Club, Korea Business angel association
AMBITIONEM	Food Retail	-	M&A	Loungelab
PULSEN	HR	-	GRANT	TIPS
XUSURRUS	MOM Brand	-	M&A	Directors Company
Katchers	C2M Commerce	13 billion	Series A	Altos Ventures, Saehan Startup Investment, Balon Capital
Rookie Corporation	Recruiting	-	M&A	Drama&Company
AILO	Goods platform	-	Seed	Postech holdings
Infinite block	Blockchain	-	Seed	Info Bank

Major Funding

• AIRS Medical, which provides AI-powered diagnostic test solutions, has received an investment of KRW 25.3 billion. It was founded in 2018 by graduates of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department and the College of Medicine at SNU. By digitizing diagnostic testing with AI robotics technology, the company offers both patients and medical staff enhanced healthcare experiences.
• LiDAR startup SOS LAB has received KRW 19.3 billion in funding, raising the total to KRW 36.2 billion. It develops fixed-type LiDAR and high-resolution 3D lidar ML. It recently co-developed LiDAR for mobile robots with Hyundai Motor and is almost ready for commercialization.
• C2M startup Katchers has raised KRW 13 billion before launching its service. It was established by CEO Park Eun-sang from Wemakeprice. It plans to launch a service that offers super cost-effective C2M services based on its own brand in September by adapting the business model of the Chinese company Pinduoduo.
• Nature Mobility, an integrated mobility platform company, has secured KRW 10 billion in funds. Its main service is Zzimcar, a platform for AI-based car rental price comparison and real-time reservation. It offers other services including airline tickets and car sharing, with park and ride service on the horizon.
• Quriously, the operator of the online class platform Airklass, has garnered an investment of KRW 10 billion. Airklass has 4,500 masters, 290,000 videos, and 13,000 online classes. It plans to expand its B2B service and hire more talent with this fund.

#Trend Analysis

The Korean government announced that both venture investment and fund formation performance in the first half of 2022 reached record highs.

<Summary>

• Venture investment in the first half of this year recorded an all-time high of KRW 4.01 billion, up 24.3% compared to the same period last year. It surpassed KRW 4 trillion for the first time.
• The number of investments (2,815 cases), the amount of investment per case (KRW 1.42 billion), the number of invested companies (1,350 companies), and investment per company (KRW 2.97 billion) are all confirmed to be the highest of all first halves.
• By quarters, the investment in the first quarter of this year was KRW 2.18 trillion. It surpassed the KRW 2 trillion mark for the first time in the first quarter, up 65.3 percent (+KRW 861.5 billion) from the previous high of KRW 1.32 trillion in the first quarter of 2021.
• The Korean venture investment market has remained relatively stable in comparison to the global market.
• Investment in the ICT service sector, which has been in the spotlight since COVID-19, has increased significantly. Three sectors—information and communication technology (ICT) service, distribution/service, and bio/medical—have received 73.1% of all venture capital investments.
• Investment in the bio and medical industries has decreased due to falling stock prices for listed bio companies and a slow listing process.
• From 2018 to 2020, less than 30 companies raised more than KRW 10 billion in the year’s first half. The number rose to 62 in 2021 and 91 in 2022.
• Both the number of funds and their performance surpassed previous highs. KRW 4.43 trillion has been generated by 176 funds, an increase of 55.9% over the same period last year.
• Private venture funds are considered to have contributed the most to the largest venture fund ever. The private sector invested KRW 3.63 trillion, up 77.2 percent from the same period last year, while the public sector invested KRW 800.5 billion, up 0.8 percent from the same period last year.

Although venture investment achieved a record high in the first half of the year, the government claimed that there are still worries, such as the second half’s performance declining due to interest rate hikes. The government expressed its will to encourage private funds to flow into the investment market by investing in the fund of funds.