The second Demo day of the fifth edition of TIPS & beSUCCESS Korean Startup Showcase Silicon Valley on Oct. 13 co-hosted with Korea Business Angels Association and Cuvee April proved fruitful for participating Korean startups as they gained a better understanding about entering the global market. The 15 participating Korean tech startups put out their best efforts to pitch to prominent Venture Capitalists and Investors of Silicon Valley on the second Demo Day hosted at O’Melveny & Myers LLP office in in Menlo Park, Silicon Valley.
O’Melveny & Myers LLP is a law firm that works with entrepreneurs and investors to support the emergence of innovative companies. The global law firm has offices in 18 locations worldwide. The firm has a talented team of more than 750 lawyers who help clients grow, protect their assets, and navigate the challenges of complex law and regulation.
The TIPS & beSUCCESS Korean Startup Showcase Silicon Valley is a program held annually to showcase the potential of the Korean startup ecosystem to leading VC firms and accelerators in Silicon Valley and support startups to enter the global market. TIPSX beSUCCESS Korean Startup Showcase Silicon Valley was held from October 11, 2022, to October 14, 2022, in San Francisco and Palo Alto.
The 15 Korean startup teams that presented their services were Gadget Korea, Blinkers, TissenBioFarm, Gomi Corporation, Noutecompany, inDJ, Ad-Shield, Aurum Care Management, Kinava, LooKo, MoveAWheel, PMX, PuzzleData, Testbank, and Tart.
The prominent VCs and investors that attended the second Demo day event on Oct. 13 included:
Collin Wallace, Managing Director, Techstars: Techstars is a global investment business that provides access to capital, one-on-one mentorship, a worldwide network and customized programming for early-stage entrepreneurs. Collin has recently joined Techstars. His previous position was as Vice President of Product & Partnerships with Thanx. Collin is also a lecturer with Stanford University Graduate School of Business, and a serial entrepreneur in the food & beverage space
SungHoon Suh, CEO, KDB Silicon Valley LLC: KDB Silicon Valley LLC is a newly established Venture Capital subsidiary of the Korea Development Bank (“KDB”) that aims to lead innovation through investment activity. SungHoon Suh has been with KDB Silicon Valley LLC since 2021. He worked as a team leader at Korea Development Bank for over 15 years before becoming CEO of KDB Silicon Valley LLC.
Valery Yalouskikh, Venture Partner, Network VC: Network VC is a Venture Fund and Venture Capital Platform for the decentralized VC community. Valery has been with Network VC for seven months. He previously worked with ISE Accelerator & Venture Capital Firm in Ukraine. He has been a startup mentor and advisor for over eight years.
Yong Joon Choi, Principal, LG Tech Ventures: LG Technology Ventures manages over $400 million of fund assets and invests in early-stage startups in artificial intelligence, mobility, advanced materials, life sciences, next-generation display, mobile, and 5G. Yong Joon Choi has been with LG Technology Ventures for four months. He has worked with Rutter Private Equity – and KPMG.
Pohhui Chia, Associate Director, Associate Director: Vickers Venture Partners is a global venture capital firm focused on early-stage investments in Asia and beyond. The firm’s portfolio covers life sciences, technology, media, telecommunications, and consumer and financial services. Pohhui’s work at Vickers Venture Partners involves finding, evaluating and managing investments into early startup companies developing deep technologies, particularly in the healthcare, biotechnology and pharmaceutical sectors.
Lawrence Gordon, Principal, Lawrence Gordon: The FactPoint Group is a Silicon Valley-based research and consulting firm dedicated to its clients’ business improvement. Lawrence has been with the firm for over two decades. He has deep and wide experience leading research-informed advisory services to help Fortune 500 executives and other technology product marketers.
Phil Yoon, Partner, Big Basin Capital: Big Basin Capital is a venture capital firm based in Silicon Valley, investing in early-stage startups in Korea and the United States. Phil is the founder and General Partner of Big Basin Capital. Since founding Big Basin, he has raised two seed-stage funds and invested in more than 20 startups in Korea and the US in various sectors, such as mobile applications, e-commerce, enterprise software, digital content, education technology, and gaming. Phil serves on the board of many companies he backed, including ODK Media, Kong Studios, ZEPL, Cookat, Goodtime, and Swingvy.
August Rock, Analyst, Seraph Group: Seraph Group is an early-stage venture firm that offers investors a diversified portfolio of technology startups and entrepreneurs between $100K to $2M in seed and early-stage capital. August is an analyst working closely with senior management to evaluate, monitor, and manage the financial stakes.
John Yang, Investor, Riverwood Capital: Riverwood Capital is a globally-focused private equity firm that invests in high-growth businesses in the technology and services industries across various verticals and geographies. John Yang is a Senior Associate at Riverwood Capital. Before joining Riverwood, John was an Associate at Pegasus Capital Advisors, a middle-market growth equity fund, where he focused on investments in sustainability and wellness sectors. Previously, John was an investment banker focused on mergers & acquisitions across technology and consumer sectors at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
Sang Yoon Choi, Investor, GS Futures.VC: GS Futures is a corporate venture capital firm part of GS Holdings, a subsidiary of GS Group of South Korea., that aims to invest in companies at the early stage.Sang Yoon Choi has worked in different positions with GS E&C for more than 15 years.
Bernard Moon, Co-founder and Partner, Sparklabs Group: SparkLabs Group is a network of startup accelerators and venture capital funds that have invested in over 350 startups across six continents since 2013. Bernard Moon co-founded SparksLabs, a network of accelerators and venture capital funds. In the past, Bernard co-founded another company, been the managing director of an investment firm, led product development, established strategic partnerships and serves on the advisory boards to Seoul National University’s Graduate School of Data Science and Nanyang Technological University’s EcoLabs (Centre of Innovation for Energy), and sits on the Board of Directors for the American Red Cross of Silicon Valley.
Grace Kang, Associate Attorney, Song & Lee, LLP: Song & Lee, LLP is a boutique law firm that provides corporate legal services in a focused range of areas, from startup counseling and general corporate matters to venture capital financings, mergers, acquisitions, taxation, immigration, employment issues, intellectual property protection, contractual matters, and other preliminary business issues. Grace Kang is an associate who practices litigation and corporate law.
Jens Weitzel, Managing Partner, Yabusame Partners: Yabusame Partners is an international boutique consulting firm focusing exclusively on the technology market and working with companies developing solutions with significant IP content. Jens has over 20 years of international experience as a technology executive working in large enterprises and startups.
Others who attended the second Demo Day included Kimmie Kim, Business Development Specialist, Samsung Next; Peter Bae, Director of KIC; Kyung Hyun Kang, Director of Delta Electronics America; Ted Hyungchul Shin, Director, Samsung Next, Seojin Yoon, Investment Analyst, Plug and Play Accelerator, Kiyeol Seo, Journalist, Hankyung and Eunyun Park, Investor.
It was a full house on the second Demo Day at TIPS & beSUCCESS Korean Startup Showcase Silicon Valley 2022 as the startup participants presented their products and services. The startup founders were asked numerous questions about their services by expert investors.
Blinkers, Korea’s first wine exchange, was asked why they established an NFT for wine. Gadget Korea, which has developed USIMSA, a data roaming solution for travellers, was asked about partnering with different satellite companies globally or in the US, like Starlink.
Looko, which operates a digital closet, was suggested to ensure legal scrutiny for minor users for their service. inDJ, the app that provides music to users as per their moods, was asked about their target to collaborate with healthcare services. Looko plans to use its AI solution to collect data from user emotion and point out potential dangers if some user has mental problems as per their music choices. They were advised to be wary of privacy issues.
Gomi corporation, a global commerce solution provider, was praised for its benefits for small and medium businesses and was asked what value their company can provide to large-size organizations. The green tech startup Kinava interested the VCs. They wanted to know how the company plans to increase its footprint overseas without having a significant source of funds and what will be their competitive advantage in the market.
The 15 startup team also interacted with Ray Hong, CEO and Co-founder of the successful startup Allo (BeeCanvas), a collaborative workspace tool. BeeCanvas, now rebranded Allo is a SaaS collaboration product for remote education and work, widely known for strategic investment from Zoom.
The company has raised funding from Korean VC investors Atinum Investment, Partners Investment, and Smilegate Investment, Ascendo Ventures. Started in 2019 by college dropouts, the company has risen from a small base of users to a global company.
Read more about the program,
- TIPSX beSUCCESS Korean Startup Showcase 2022 participants have in-depth Q&A with SOSV’s Weichang Ge
- TIPSX beSUCCESS Korean Startup Showcase 2022 participants get valuable lessons from AMINO Capital’s Dr. Sue Xu
- TIPSX beSUCCESS Korean Startup Showcase 2022 Silicon Valley kicks off with mentoring session at Perkins Coie San Francisco
- TIPSX beSUCCESS Korean Startup Showcase 2022 Silicon Valley to be held on October 11-14
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