Invest KOREA

According to Pulse by Maeil Business News Korea,

South Korean startups drew over $4 billion from foreign venture capital so far this year as they benefited from Beijing’s discriminative actions on foreign capital that turned attention on promising Korean innovative enterprises.

According to a study jointly carried out by Maeil Business Newspaper and startup data firm The VC, foreign venture capitals invested 4.96 trillion won ($4.2 billion) in 144 Korean startups between January and September, nearly six-fold from 871.8 billion won in 128 startups for full 2020.

Korea’s online hotel booking app Yanolja was most hot, winning 1.94 trillion won investment from Japan’s SoftBank in July.

Startups in diverse sectors – including Toss, Market Kurly, Danggeun Market, Noom, and Riiid – have each attracted as little as tens of billions of won to as much as hundreds of billions of won in foreign capital investment this year.

Artificial intelligence (AI) foreign language education platform Riiid received 197 billion won from SoftBank.

U.S.-based health and diet app Noom co-founded by Korean American pulled in 600 billion won, including 85.7 billion won each from four U.S. funds.

Viva Republica, operator of Korea’s fintech pioneer Toss, drew 460 billion won, including 84 billion won from U.S. Alkeon Capital Management. Online shopping mall TMON raised 305 billion won, 44 billion won each from Hong Kong-based Anchor Equity Partners and U.S.-based Kohlberg Kravis Roberts.

Early-morning online grocery delivery service provider Market Kurly attracted 80 percent of 220 billion won investment this year from foreign funds, including those from China, U.S., Russia, and Hong Kong. Hyperlocal secondhand trading platform Danggeun Market raised 120 billion won from overseas capital – 20 billion won each from six funds from U.S., Japan, Hong Kong, and Russia. The investment is two thirds of its entire investment of 180 billion won this year.

Jay Byeon, chief executive of The VC, noted foreign venture capitals’ investment in local startups has scaled up in size and diversity.

Korea has benefited from ample liquidity due to the curbs in China.

According to venture capital investment platform Crunchbase, venture capital investment in Chinese firms in the July-September period reached $12 billion, down 12 percent on quarter and 8.7 percent on year.

Foreign capital has been looking out for ventures outside China due to uncertainties from regulations. Korean startups caught their attention through blockbuster IPOs and M&As.

E-commerce giant Coupang and Woowa Brothers, operator of Baedal Minjok, are first-generation startups that raised foreign capital in 2018 and major online fashion platform Musinsa in 2019.

After Coupang’s New York IPO, Korean entities require lesser explanation, said Oh Moon-suk, partner at Altos Ventures.



By Chun Beom-ju and Lee Eun-joo

Copyrights Pulse by Maeil Business News Korea. All Rights Reserved.

Source: Pulse by Maeil Business News Korea (November 2, 2021)