[StartupRecipe] Three Sectors That Captured Investor Attention in the First Half of 2023

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#Weekly Funding Overview

[July. 3~ July. 7]

The total funds raised by Korean startups of this week is KRW 171.7 billion.

Company	Industry	Amount	Round	Investors
Pairy	B2B SaaS	1.4 billion	Seed	Bass Investment, Mashup Angels, Konai Partners, Infobank
Pitterpetter	Pettech	900 million	Pre-Series A	MYSC, Hi Investment partners
Dogugonggan	Robotics	-	Series A	Samick matz Ventures
Greendote	Electronic car charging	3 billion	Seed	Woori Bank, Behight Investment, Gridwiz, Isa company, Mousq
igogo	Kids edu	-	Grant	TIPS
Ecrox	Air purifier	-	Grant	TIPS
Genfitx	Golf data science	-	Grant	TIPS
Medility	Digital Healthcare	5.6 billion	Pre-Series A	KB Investment, KDB Development Bank, Kakao Ventures, BA Partners
D&C Biotechnology	Healthcare	1 billion	Pre-Series A	Quantum F&A LLC, KFFI, Hanllym technology holdings, Mirae holdings
Next edition	Camping platform	-		Korea Investment Accelerator
PHAROSMARINE	Marine mobility	-	Seed
AIS	Agri tech	2.2 billion	Pre-Series A	Ascendo Ventures, Smilegate Investments
Intake	Foodtech	8 billion	Series B	ATU Partners, BNH Investments, Ulmus Investments
Beyond Honeycomb	Food robotics	7 billion	Series A	LB Investment,BA Partners, Korea Development Bank, Dev Sisters Ventures, Posco capital
BRLab	Sleep tech	2.5 billion		Golden Oak Investment
Gravity lab	Healthcare	-		Delightroom
Stellavision		500 million	Seed	Hana Ventures, Postech holdings.
Tesser	Medical platform	-	Seed	Blue Point Partners
Vetflux	Pettech	-	Grant	TIPS
EVAR	Electronic car charging	22 billion	Series B	Korea Development Bank, Samsung, Hanwha Investment & Securities, Orix Securities-SBI Investment, DSC Investment-Schmidt, Envisioning Partners,
Gint	Agri tech	16.5 billion	Series B	SGC Partners, Hanwha Investment & Securities, Shinhan Asset Management, HG Initiative, JB Investment, IBK, Prophet Asset, CKD Venture Capital
Cubig	Security	-		Naver D2SF
Moiber	AR	-	Pre-Series A Bridge
Cointravit	Fintech	-		Newborn Ventures
4upnote	Business Management	-	Seed	Y&Archer, Venture box
Freewheelin	Education	7 billion	Series B	Smilegate Investment, Altos Ventures, Seoul Investment Partners
Koosign	Electronic car charging	-	Pre-Series A	Hyundai Technology Investment /
BLQ	Electronic device commerce	5 billion	Series A2	CJ Investment, Strong Ventures, IBK Industrial Bank of Korea
Steppay	Fintech	-	Pre-Series A2	KB Investment, Medici Investment, Primer Sazze Partners
Inertia	Feminine healthcare	-	Pre-Series A	Fast Ventures, Future Play
RN1	Outdoor platform	-	Pre-Series A	New Paradigm Investment
Slowave	Sleeptech	-	Seed	Spark Labs, Kingsley Ventures, D-Camp, The Ventures
Deep I	AI	-	Grant	Deeptech TIPS
AKRO	Fashion brand	-	M&A	Beutyselection
Green	Smart farm	-	Pre-Series A	Tinvestment
Klaydice	P2E	-		Altos Ventures

Major Funding

• Electric vehicle charging solution EVAR secures 22 billion won in investment. EVAR, a spin-off from Samsung Electronics’ in-house venture, started with mobile charging solutions such as autonomous driving and automatic charging robots. It currently supplies 20,000 fast chargers nationwide and is promoting smart Dynamic Load Balancing charging infrastructure. The investment will be used to secure talent and focus on overseas expansion, including the United States and Japan.
• Intelligence agriculture mobility company Gint has attracted an investment of KRW165 billion. It develops solutions that can upgrade existing agricultural machinery to autonomous driving, allowing real-time location data and autonomous operation on major domestic and international brands of tractors, among others.
• Foodtech startup Intake attracts KRW 8 billion in investment. It focuses on alternative meat, alternative eggs, and alternative sweeteners based on plant-based and microbial-based alternative food material technologies. Its goal is to be listed on the KOSDAQ as the first food tech company.
• Education startup FreeWheelin secures KRW 7 billion in funding. It operates a mathematics education service called MathFlat and possesses 700,000 self-produced math contents, providing customized math content. The investment will be used for talent acquisition and product enhancement plans.
• Beyond Honeycomb attracts KRW 7 billion in investment. It has developed robots capable of reproducing dishes from famous chefs, and it pays copyright fees to chefs when the dishes are sold. The robot is equipped with a molecular sensor that detects changes in the characteristics of food ingredients at the molecular level, allowing the reproduction of consistent texture and taste. The investment will be used for establishing a US subsidiary and other purposes.

#Trend Analysis

Three Sectors That Captured Investor Attention in the First Half of 2023

Startups in the first half of 2023 have encountered a challenging investment landscape, grappling with a significant funding drought. According to data from Startup Recipe, investments during this period recorded a sharp decline of 36% compared to the second half of the previous year, and a staggering 57% decrease when compared to the previous quarter. Despite the prevailing pessimism in the investment market, certain sectors have managed to capture the attention of investors. Among the various fields, three sectors stood out as focal points for investment during the first half of the year.

Generative AI=Generative AI, fueled by the global popularity of chatGPT, has swiftly emerged as a lucrative investment field both domestically and internationally. Startups have been quick to seize this trend by introducing services that incorporate the functionality of chatGPT. Companies specializing in generative AI have garnered attention right from the early stages. Noteworthy players making waves in this realm include Wrttn Technology, which successfully secured 15 billion KRW in funding, Pion Corporation, the operator of VCat—an automatic advertising video production platform, and Scatter Lab, the creator of IruDA, a chatbot capable of engaging in friendly conversations.

ContentIP=Amidst the investment winter, content intellectual property (IP) startups have defied the odds and thrived in the first half of this year. Propelled by the widespread adoption of over-the-top (OTT) platforms and the soaring popularity of K-content, these startups have attracted significant investment as they showcase potential for expansion across multiple domains such as movies, webtoons, and games. Even early-stage companies have successfully secured funding due to the high growth expectations associated with this sector. Notable examples include Theorigin, which raised an impressive 13.3 billion KRW in seed funding, leveraging its expertise in animation and webtoon IP production. 4th CREATIVE PARTY and The Grem Entertainment have also made their mark. Additionally, prominent startups such as Beyond Music—an investment firm specializing in music IP—and Music Cow—a platform offering music revenue securities—have gained recognition within the content IP financial services sector.

System semiconductors=System semiconductors, regarded as the future of the industry, have received active support from the government. In turn, investors have shown a keen interest in injecting funds into semiconductor startups, intensifying competition within the sector. Padu, the first unicorn in the semiconductor field, has been the subject of significant attention this year, with leading examples including Semifive, Furiosa AI, Rebellion, and DeepX. Additionally, companies like Encored Technologies, known for manufacturing equipment used in semiconductor manufacturing processes, Gwanak Analog, specializing in power semiconductor development, and ㅍVanam, focusing on semiconductor materials and components, have successfully attracted substantial investments. Furthermore, the selection of Boss Semiconductor, a startup specializing in vehicle semiconductors, by the Hyundai Motor Group underscores the recognition and support it has garnered within the industry.