[StartupRecipe] Taking Longer to Reach Series B Funding from A

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#Weekly Funding Overview

[June. 19 ~ June. 23]

The total funds raised by Korean startups of this week is KRW 126.46 billion.

Company	Industry	Amount	Round	Investors
Levit	Ecommerce	60 billion	Series B	DST Global Partners, Bond Capital, KB Investment, Mirae Asset Capital, Mirae Asset Venture Investment, Korea Investment Partners, GS Ventures, GS, Klim Ventures
Atto research	Software Defined Network	10 billion	Series C
Dotslashdash	Content Platform	5 billion	Pre-Series A Bridge	Slanders
Wedatalab	Monitoring solution	-		CNTTech, DB Capital
Letsur	Nocode	-	Seed	Stonebridge Ventures, Smilegate Investments, Schmidt
Horizon technology	Fintech	-	Pre-Series A	Goodthings
Galloping	Soccer Training	-	Grant	TIPS
Chopsticks	Art commerce	-	Grant	TIPS
Mangoplay	Creator commerce	-	Seed	KODIT
Riad	Travel	-	Seed	Future Play
Rina solution	Safety monitoring	-	Grant	TIPS
Kiip	Healthcare	-	Seed	Unnoted
HnPower	Energy	3 billion		Sungkwang
Ciel mobility	Mobility	5 billion	Series A	PathfinderH, KODIT, Hanwha Investment & Securities
Genfitx	Golf	-	Grant	TIPS
Creative Digital lab	Education	-	Seed	Korea Investment Accelerator
Madeleine Memory	B2B Secondhand Solution	-	Grant	TIPS
Petel	pettech	-	Grant	TIPS
Revation	Eco friendly Packaging	-	Pre-Series A	Korea Investment Accelerator, Yuhan Kimberly Green Impact Fund, S Cubic Angels, PRISM, Hanyang University
Orum therapeutics	Bio	26 billion	Series C bridge	Crystal Bioscience, Stick Ventures, KB Investment, IMM Investment, Intervest, Premier Partners, Starset Investment
Connecteve	Digital Healthcare	-	Grant	TIPS
Bridgecode	Fintech	-	Grant	TIPS
Desilo	Security	-		LG
MR.Dad	Food	-		Hite Jinro
Gadet Korea	Roaming	-		Hite Jinro
Infludeo	Kpop	2 billion	Series A	Korea Investment Partners, SB Partners, Laguna Investment
Persona.ai	AI	2 billion		Hyosung Ventures
Betterwhy	Battery	2 billion	Hyosung Ventures
Urbanplay	Local Content	7.6 billion	Series B	Murex Partners, Lotte Ventures, Smart Study Ventures
Easy Charger	Electronic car charging	500 million		Hyundai Industrial
Fridays lab	Marketing solution	1.16 billion	Pre-Series A Bridge
Liquid nation	Social app	-	Seed	Bass Investment, Good Water Capital
Radius		2.2 billion	Pre-seed	Hashed, Superscript, Lambda Class, Crypto.com
Grandmachan	Food	-	Seed	CNTTech

Major Funding

• Levit, the operator of Allways, a team purchasing commerce platform, has secured KRW 60 billion in investments. They plan to leverage this capital to introduce a discovery-commerce model that utilizes low-priced products and recommendation algorithms to drive purchases. Their goal is to rapidly increase market share in the domestic commerce market and expand globally to establish a leading position in the discovery commerce sector.
• Attoresearch has received KRW 10 billion in investments, bringing their total cumulative investment to KRW 30 billion. With their expertise in domestic cloud solutions powered by OpenStack, they are poised to expedite the establishment of Software-Defined Data Centers (SDDC) using cloud technology with this funding. Additionally, they have plans to expand their operations by acquiring a data center operating company in the second half of this year.
• UrbanPlay, a city culture content platform, has secured KRW 7.6 billion in investments, surpassing a total investment of KRW 17 billion. Their objective is to develop a comprehensive content business platform encompassing offline content investment, production, distribution, and operation with the newly acquired funds. Additionally, they have plans to enhance investments in creator intellectual property (IP) and expedite initiatives beginning this year.

Taking Longer to Reach Series B Funding from A

Startups are facing lengthier delays in securing funding for their next stage as the investment climate deteriorates. The slowdown can be attributed, in part, to a shift in investor sentiment, where funding is becoming less readily available. Additionally, startups, whose value is diminishing, are finding it challenging to negotiate favorable investment terms and are thus biding their time for optimal conditions to solidify their foundation. While several factors may be at play, one notable trend is the increased duration it takes for startups to successfully raise funds for their subsequent investment stage.

According to data from Startup Recipe, based on the first half of the current year, Korean startups that managed to secure Series B investments took an average of slightly over 30 months to progress from Series A to Series B. In the active investment period during the first half of 2021, this duration averaged 19 months, which subsequently extended to approximately 26 months in the latter half of 2022 as investments began to decline sharply.

A direct comparison between the first half of 2021 and 2023 reveals a significant 10-month disparity in reaching the Series B stage. Such a divergence can intensify financial pressure on startups. Furthermore, the number of startups reaching Series B has plummeted by more than half compared to the latter half of 2022, underscoring a deceleration in growth-stage investments.

Nevertheless, it is worth noting that certain prominent startups are not unduly influenced by external circumstances. Even in the face of challenging conditions, some companies have rapidly progressed to the Series B stage. An exemplary case is Revit, a mobile commerce company that recently secured a 60 billion won investment. Revit achieved Series B funding a mere nine months after obtaining Series A2 investment. Since its establishment in 2021, Rev-It has experienced swift growth as it enters its third year. Similarly, Payhere, an advocate for store management digitalization, successfully attracted Series B investment just one year after completing its Series A funding.

Numerous other companies complete the transition from Series A to Series B investments in under a year. Noteworthy examples include KREAM, Green Labs, Seloin, Doctor Now, Jarvis & Villains, Inno Space, Reco, Vinssen, Imago Works, Flex, ASleep, Rapporlabs, and more.

While prospects for an improved investment environment may not appear immediately evident, there is a growing trend of companies attracting substantial funding compared to earlier this year. Investments are flowing into specific sectors such as AI semiconductors or companies that have overcome losses and are fortifying their foundation. This signifies continued investor interest in startups with significant growth potential. By astutely leveraging the current environment and strategic investment timing, startups can sustain their growth trajectory even amidst an extended dry spell in investments.