The 4th quarter 2022 snapshot of South Korean technology news headlines, gathered in October, November and December of 2022 and also covering the country’s startup and funding scenes.
Korean tech news across 2022’s fourth quarter looked at items including Seongnam’s goals for its ‘metaverse city’ project, the balancing act contained in the country’s Indo-Pacific Strategy, South Korea’s new digital partnership with the European Union, and more. Hit the headline links featured below to read each article in full, online.
December 2022 | November 2022 | October 2022
December 2022: Korea
2023 Digital Asset Outlook – The Block
- South Korea: Wemade blockchain game firm to buy back and burn $10M worth of native WEMIX cryptocurrency to stabilize value after 4 local crypto exchanges delist the token
- South Korea: Bunker Kids raises $1.5M Series A funding with combined diet menu recommendations and delivery services, optimizing for personal health goals using data and algorithms
- South Korea: National Assembly partners FiscalNote for AI-driven policy intelligence, regulatory tracking and more, allowing gov’t to monitor overseas legislation affecting Korea
- South Korea: N15 Partners and US’ Starburst accelerators ink MOU on accelerating partnerships to boost the Korean startup and aerospace ecosystems
- South Korea: Paywork SaaS firm gains Pre-Series A with tools for self-employed, freelancers and specially-hired workers, providing business-related services spanning invoicing, contracts, statements and more
- South Korea: Government launches $76M fund aiming to nurture 30 high-value food-tech startups by 2027
“The Korean ministry expects the country‘s food tech exports to quadruple by 2027 from $500 million in 2022. The ministry aims to increase the number of food tech unicorns to 30 by 2027. It already has two food tech unicorns: Market Kurly and Oasis Market.”
- South Korea commits $441M to improving drone defense, following difficulties in containing incursion of 5 drones from North Korea
- South Korea: An examination of the tensions at play in the country’s recently-released Indo-Pacific Strategy
- China’s Tencent Cloud partners South Korea’s Nexon global video publisher to launch Nexontown metaverse platform
November 2022: Korea
- How North Korea became a mastermind of crypto cyber crime: “Cryptocurrency theft has become one of the regime’s main sources of revenue and underlines the lack of regulation of digital assets…”
- South Korea: AG-Uni enters US market with vertical farming system focusing on high value-added crops and plant materials
- South Korea: A brief intro to Asleep, AI-powered software which interprets smartphone-collected sound clips, matching them with corresponding brain wave patterns to help users get better rest
- South Korea’s Perigee Aerospace inks MoU with Philippine Space Agency, seeing opportunity to become ‘SpaceX of Asia’
“The startup [Perigee Aerospace] has raised $22.5 million in a Series B bridge round and wants to launch an IPO in 2024. It has named KB Securities Co. and Korea Investment & Securities Co. as lead underwriters for the IPO.”
- South Korea: Poen, which started as a Hyundai venture project, takes event win with refurbishment and renewal method to bring new life to used electric vehicle batteries
- South Korea: Laundrygo on-demand services startup raises $37M Series C, seeing opportunity in the mostly-offline laundry services space
- South Korea: “One out of four startups in South Korea is considering moving its business abroad in search of looser regulation”, survey of 256 businesses finds
- South Korea: TheVentures Singapore venture-building firm preps for launch, aiming to replicate success of Korea-based early-stage startup incubator and VC
“TheVentures Korea, backed by blue-chip LPs and investors including Kakao, NCSoft and Com2Us, has invested in over 100 startups and holds a portfolio value well in excess of US$1 billion (RM4.18 billion).”
- South Korea: An overview of InfoPLUS and financial API platform, InfoAPI, and its expansion goals following successful introduction of finance-focused ‘digital building blocks’ services to Vietnam
- South Korea: A deep-dive into those startups selected for the ‘best of’ category in the recent COMEUP 2022 Global Startup Festival, spanning medical-tech, retail technology, metaverse avatars and more
- Digital Partnership announced between the Republic of Korea and the European Union to foster joint work on fields including semiconductors, next-gen networks, cybersecurity and more
October 2022: Korea
Korea: A Policy Framework for Blockchain and Digital Assets (pdf)
- South Korea’s COMEUP 2022 startup festival is set for November 9-11, showcasing the country’s rising tech firms and solutions
- South Korea: CLASSUM education-tech raises $11M pre-Series B with interactive learning platform used by more than 6000 organizations across 32 countries
- An overview of the Korea Tourism Organization’s Korean Startup Showcase 2022 Singapore StartTour, and the 11 startups taking part
- A brief intro to 5 startups from the F10 & K-Startup Center Singapore Program, working in maritime propulsion, insect farming, user authentication and more
- Singapore Fintech Association partners Banks Foundation for Young Entrepreneurs to create 80RR, a co-working space for Korean companies in Singapore
- South Korean VC firm Nextrans to launch new $50M Vietnam-focused fund to target the country’s tech startup ecosystem, looking at investments up to $3M in value
- South Korea: City of Seongman unveils plans for a digital copy, Metaverse Special City Seongnam, with denizens accessing key services and information via NFT citizenship
- Download: ‘A Policy Framework For Blockchain & Digital Assets In Korea’ via Ripple (pdf)
Crypto: Assessing the strengths and weaknesses of North Korean hackers
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