[StartupRecipe] South Korea announced the global advancement strategy for K-Startups

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#Weekly Funding Overview

[Sep. 5 ~ Sep. 8]

The total funds raised by Korean startups of this week is KRW  482.6 billion.

Company	Inudustry	Amount	Round	Investors
Megazone Cloud	Cloud	450 billion	Series C	MBK Partners, IMM PE
Gbike	Personal mobility	-		Hyundai Motor Group, Kia
AngelSwing	Contech	-		Samsung Venture Investment
Codeblossom	Senior Care	-	Seed	AI Angel club, The invention lab
BGBGB	Storage	-	M&A	SecondSyndrome
Right	Digital marketing expert matching	-	Seed	Mashup Angels, Sopoong Ventures
Threeducks	Entertainment	-	Seed	Daesung Venture Capital, Philosophia Ventures, Monster Entertainment, My music taste, Deasung
Apposter	Fashion tech	11 billion	Series B	Korea Investment Partners, Hanwha Life Insurance, Infobank, Intervest, Comes Investment, Leo Partners Investment
Atlas Labs	Audio	9 billion	Series A	TBT Partners, IBX Partners, SV Investment, DT & Investment
Soft-n	Quiz platform	-		Hunet, Hunet Ventures
AFI	Game server	5.3 billion	Series A	Gu Equity, Blue Point Partners, Kakao Ventures, Lighthouse Combine Best, Schmidt
Poollab	HR	-	GRANT	TIPS
Greenpakage solution	Eco friendly	-		K&Investment Partners, ISU Venture Capital, Innopolis Partners, Enlight Ventures, BSK Investment, Posco Venture capital
Heavenly	Content	-		Almond Company, Moving Pictures Company, Kenaz
Brasscorp	Marketing Commerce	-		Mina global
Swit Technologies		5.5 billion		SK Broadband
Nextground	Prophtech	-	Seed	Bon Angels Venture Partners, CNTTECH, 1Billion Partners
Vertexab	Healthcare	-		Zerotoone Partners
Adler	3D SNS	1.8 billion	Pre-Series A	Korea Investment Partners, Decamp, Lighthouse Combine Investment, Evergreen Investment Partners
Evio	Wood processing	-		Series Ventures, Kyungnam CCEI
OOTD	AI Fashion	-	GRANT	TIPS
Elroilab	AI	-	GRANT	TIPS
Green		-	Seed	CNTTech

Major Funding

• Megazone Cloud, a cloud specialist, has raised KRW 450 billion in investment and totaled KRW 800 billion in funding. The funds will be used to support the digital transformation of corporate clients and fortify its position in the Asian cloud market until global expansion and IPO in 2024.
• Fashion Tech Timeflik operator Apposter has secured a series B investment of KRW 11 billion. It offers services to create and apply smartwatch faces. It will establish an open market and open more offline stores. 
• Atlas Labs, which operates an AI-based voice recognition service Sentroid, has received KRW 9 billion series A investment. It plans to target the B2B market by utilizing the function that converts voice calls into data with a conversation analysis solution for call centers.
• AFI, the game server platform The Backend operator, has secured KRW 5.3 billion Series A funding. With the funds, it will enhance its global infrastructure and open data centers in North America and Europe.

#Trend Analysis

South Korea announced the global advancement strategy for K-Startups

The government has announced four strategies to support Korean startups competing in the domestic market to progress internationally. The four strategies are to provide customized support by utilizing the capabilities of the private sector and collaboration with ministries; to build a global network and expand overseas bases; to create an environment to attract foreign talents and capital to Korea; to establish and promote representative K-startup brands.

• To support the overseas expansion of 270 startups starting in 2023 by collaborating with nine global companies, such as Google and Airbus.
• To promote the global unicorn project in 2023. The government will assist startups in establishing a globalization strategy through private consulting firms and provide funds and networking support. 
• To discover 140 promising startups for each industry through inter-ministerial collaboration and support connections with local accelerators.
• To provide networking opportunities between domestic startups, global conglomerates, and global VC companies in the United States.
• To test-operate the K-Startup networking support project and run “K-Startup Night” starting in 2023 at foreign diplomatic posts.
• To invigorate the visa system and launch specialized initiatives in order to attract excellent foreign talents to Korea.
• To work with the Ministry of Justice so that the technology and business startup visa (D-8-4) can be extended practically every two years.
• To introduce venture investment systems that meet global standards, such as venture debt, SAFE(Simple Agreement for Future Equity) that distributes investment risk, and fund governance structures modeled after those in Silicon Valley.
• To encourage the growth of global funds and operate “overseas IR of domestic VCs,” where domestic VCs directly draw in foreign capital.
• To transfer COMEUP, the largest startup event in Korea, to the private sector, making it one of the world’s top 5 global startup festivals.