April, May & June 2020
Startup Korea
The Startup News Asia quarterly summary of South Korea’s startup news from April, May and June 2020.
Each item listed is a tech-focused article or startup news headline from Q2 2020 covering an aspect of South Korea’s startup space in some way – an announcement by a Korean startup about a product, pivot or funding round, or an article outlining changes to an aspect of the Korean startup scene generally, for instance.
The focus here is obviously on South Korea, but we do include wider-world tech and startup news headlines to provide Korean startup entrepreneurs with more points-of-reference, food for thought for early-stage Korean startups, and wider tech industry knowledge.
June 2020 | May 2020 | April 2020
June 2020
- South Korea: SKT Telecom opens applications for TIP Ecosystem Acceleration Center program, focused on innovation in 5G and mobile edge computing
- South Korea’s Planetarium selected for 5th batch of Ubisoft’s Entrepreneur Labs with blockchain-driven gaming ecosystem
- South Korea: Bitsensing radar tech startup raises $5.8M Pre-A with sights on use in autonomous driving, smart home tech and robotics
- South Korea: Central bank forms legal advisory team to research digital currency
- South Korea: An intro to Mathpresso’s Qanda, AI-powered edtech platform analyzing math problems from submitted photographs
- South Korea: VUNO startup focused on AI-driven medical solutions gains European certification, opening doors to 27 EU member nations and European Free Trade Assoc’n
- Singapore and Republic of Korea start negotiations on new Korea-Singapore Digital Partnership Agreement to deal with cross-border data, digital identities, fintech and more
May 2020
- ICYMI: South Korea’s GameTalkTalk social gaming app rolled out blockchain project for gamers, offering rewards, platform and digital items exchange
- South Korea: ST Unitas online education firm gains gains $123M with English test and civil service exam preparation focus
- Samsung becomes the latest tech giant to roll out a debit card, under Samsung Pay and in partnership with SoFi online personal finance startup
- South Korea: Gov’t outlines plans for government-private sector Smart Republic of Korea Fund to boost growth in tech, startup and digital fields
- South Korea: Aizen gains $4.2M with AI/ML decision-making platform focused on banking and insurance
- South Korea: Applications now open for 2020 edition of K-Startup Grand Challenge, with 60 teams set for selection for 3-month accelerator
- Korea International Trade Association to hold NextRise 2020 startup conference and exhibition on June 23, featuring online and offline components
- South Korea: MoneyGram partners E9Pay money transfer and payments firm to tap into the Korean remittances market
- South Korea: 10 reasons for startups to consider applying to the K-Startup Grand Challenge
- South Korea: ComeUp event set for November 19-21 in Seoul and online, organised by Ministry of SMEs and Startups to aid startups in growing overseas
- South Korea: Daejeon University becomes latest university to redesign portions of finance and tech divisions, launching Future Convergence fintech department
- South Korea: Shinhan Financial Group to participate in creating a ‘Korean Silicon Valley’ in Incheon city, running a one-stop accelerator program
- Samsung Pay unveils first details of its forthcoming debit card under Samsung Money by SoFi brand, partnering with Mastercard
- Samsung partners Gemini cryptocurrency exchange, enabling users in US and Canada to buy cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin via Samsung’s Blockchain Wallet
April 2020
- South Korea: A brief intro to MOIN, blockchain-backed remittance startup offering money transfer services for 29 countries
- South Korea’s Terra stablecoin, initiated by e-commerce giant TMON, partners Solana blockchain to cut credit card transaction fees from retail profit margins
- South Korea: 1st edition of Korea Mobile Fest launches, seeking short smartphone-created films and featuring a COVID-19 themed Home Alone Mobile Fest
- South Korea: Nonghyup Bank introduces blockchain-backed ‘mobile employee ID’ service, partly driven by North Korean cyber-attacks
- South Korea: An intro to 3 startups working on overseas remittances and money transfers
- South Korea: An intro to Toss Lab, enterprise communication and collaboration and project management startup
- An overview of the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency’s focus areas, one of which is connecting Korean startups with global accelerators and mentoring
- An intro to the Korea Institute of Startup and Entrepreneurship Development, providing mentoring, networking, and events for the country’s entrepreneurs
- South Korea: An intro to Dreamfora goal-setting app, out of beta and recently released on the Google Play Store
- South Korea: Binance KR crypto-to-crypto exchange launches, offering Binance KRW stablecoin backed by the South Korean Won
- South Korea: Kurly Inc online grocery delivery startup gains $150M backing in part from Sequoia Capital to maintain presence in Korea’s competitive deliveries space
- South Korea: Central bank begins pilot program aimed at identifying technical and legal provisions required to create and issue a digital currency
- South Korea: SparkLabs startup accelerator partners Shinhan Capital nonbanking lender to create $8.28M fund to support early-stage startups
- South Korea: NextNest launches Wecast AI, broadcasting platform for Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, allowing type-to-speech casting
- ICYMI: US gove’t outlines countermeasures intended to block North Korean regime’s often cryptocurrency-dependent cybercrime campaigns
- North Korea-linked hacking group found to be sending spear-phishing email hacks with new” target of individuals concerned with North Korean refugees
- North Korea believed to be operating with circa $1.5BN in cryptocurrency in trade-based money-laundering networks to avoid sanctions
- Cambodia to gain from Korea Energy Agency investing $8M in electric bikes and solar charging stations, following Phnom Penh and Siem Reap pilot project
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