Healthcare, content and e-commerce were the top sectors in the Korean startup industry that attracted the most investment in 2021, according to an analysis done by Startup Alliance. Startup Alliance is an organization set up by the Korean government and Korean Internet leading companies to connect Korean startups communities.
2021 saw more investments over 2020
The Startup Alliance announced that more than 100 cases of investments in startups were recorded in the healthcare, content/social, and e-commerce/logistics sectors. Last year, the total number of startup investments was 1,186, and the amount was 11,728.7 billion won. Compared with 2020, the number of investments increased by 1.5 times from 774 in the previous year, and the amount of investment increased by 3.3 times from 3,452 billion won.
By sector, healthcare recorded the most investment attraction with 139 total investments. With the prolonged Covid-19 period and interest in healthcare growing, it is interpreted that investments in healthcare-related fields and startups will be more active in 2022. The content and social category took second place with 116 cases of investments. The Startup Alliance explained that the rise of the metaverse and various content companies seemed to have led to the investment. E-commerce and logistics also drew attention, recording 100 investments. It is analyzed that the online distribution and consumption market has grown as non-face-to-face services have become commonplace since Corona 19.
Growth in M&As and IPO listings
In terms of the investment amount, leisure and travel recorded the highest with unicorn travel startup Yanolja’s 2 trillion won investment from Softbank in 2021. The finance and insurance sector came in second with 1.49 trillion won. With new technologies such as blockchain and non-fungible tokens ( NFT ), FinTech startups too got attention. The e-commerce and logistics sector attracted 1.48 trillion won, ranking third in terms of amount following the number of cases. Nineteen startups attracted large-scale investments of more than 100 billion won last year compared to 2020.
The number of mergers and acquisitions ( M&A ) and listings also increased in 2021 as the markets revitalized. Last year, there were 57 M&As and 8 IPOs. This is an increase of 2.3 times compared to the 25 cases in 2020. It is evaluated that the recovery market has been activated as M&As have increased and the listing period has been shortened. Major content startups like webtoon platform Tapas Media, web novel platform Radish Media, reading platform Milli and webtoon site Munpia were acquired. Korean startup Coupang IPO got listed at New York Stock Exchange, while Wanted Lab and Jeju Beer were listed in Korea. Startup Alliance announced that the growth trend in investments in the Korean startup ecosystem is expected to continue in 2022.
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