Coupang, the Amazon of Korea was founded in 2010 and has raised $2 billion in funds from SoftBank’s Vision Fund. The food delivery platform Woowa Brothers became an unicorn startup with investments worth $ 320 million from Hillhouse Capital, US-based Sequoia Capital and GIC, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund. Woowa Brothers’ latest valuation has touched $4 billion. Just a few days back, FinTech startup Viva Republica with its premium product Toss received $173 million in funding at a valuation of $2.6 Billion.
Coupang, Woowa Brothers and Toss, all three companies have something more in common than their billion dollar+ valuation status, they were part of beSUCCESS’s startup conference beGLOBAL in 2013. beSUCCESS, the tech startup media hosted one of the biggest startup conferences called beGLOBAL. The conference was organized with the mission to showcase promising startups from South Korea. beSUCCESS’s expertise in Korea’s startup community, international media, and investor network, has given promising enterprises a platform to get access to become a unicorn.
South Korea’s leading startup media company beSUCCESS and South Korean government-backed incubator TIPS (Tech Incubator Program for startup Korea) will be hosting the 3rd edition of “TIPS X beSUCCESS Korean Startup Showcase” on September 23-24,2020. The highly successful first 2 editions of the startup showcase were held in San Francisco and Palo Alto.
The 3rd edition will be completely online allowing investors from anywhere in the world to interact with 11 funded Korean startups with cutting edge innovations. The startups have been chosen keeping in mind the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and preparing for the post-COVID world.
The event is a platform to showcase promising funded South Korean startups, enabling investors to learn more about the innovative startups and build a funding pipeline in South Korea.
To apply to attend the showcase, click here.
Program alumni who have gone on to raise funding:
Startups who have participated in the first 2 editions, have gone to raise funding from leading investors and corporates:
Nota, an on-device AI solution startup, has raised $6.7M (8 billion KRW) in series A investment round in August 2020, by investors SBV(Pre-series A investor), LB investment, Samsung SDS (utilizing Samsung Venture Investment Corporation fund) and LG CNS as a strategic investor. With this raise, the firm has raised $8.4M(10 billion KRW) in total.
Bitsensing, a South Korean radar technology startup, has raised $5.8 million in a Pre-Series A round of funding in June 2020. This round was led by LB Investment, leading venture capital in South Korea, and Mando Corporation, a South Korean global Tier 1 automotive supplier, participated as a strategic investor. Hansae, SB Partners, also participated with Future Play and SJ Investment Partners from a previous round.
The Edutech startup Riiid has secured a $41.8 million pre-Series D funding round in July 2020. The funding round was led by state-run Korea Development Bank (KDB), NVESTOR, Intervest, as well as from an existing investor IMM Investment, bringing Riiid’s total funding to date to $70.2 million.
“TIPS X beSUCCESS Korean Startup Showcase” is a FREE, invite-only event for active and accredited investors and strategic partners to view live pitches of promising Korean tech startups before they graduate the official TIPS program.
Attendees will get a first look at the startups’ live pitches, meet the founders, and network with other top-tier investors and corporate strategists. This showcase will also set aside time during the event for one-on-one meetings between investors and startups. This way the investor can be guaranteed face-time with the companies they are interested in and get all their questions answered.
Schedule:
- 23rd September 2020 08:00-09:30 KST (16:00 PDT, 07:00 SGT) : 11 startups online live pitching for US based investors
- 23rd September 2020 15:00-16:30 KST (14:00 SGT, 23:00 PDT) : 11 startups online live pitching for Asia based investors
- 24th September 2020 08:00-09:30 KST (16:00 PDT, 07:00 SGT) : 11 startups online live pitching for US based investors
- 24th September 2020 15:00-16:30 KST (14:00 SGT, 23:00 PDT) : 11 startups online live pitching for Asia based investors
To apply to attend the showcase, click here.
Below are the 11 startups that have been shortlisted among hundreds of startups, for detailed profiles of the participating startups, click here.
