TIPSX beSUCCESS Korean Startup Showcase 2022 Silicon Valley to be held on October 11-14

TIPS & beSUCCESS will host the fifth edition of TIPSX beSUCCESS Korean Startup Showcase Silicon Valley from October 11, 2022, to October 14, 2022, in San Francisco and Palo Alto. The Korean Startup Showcase Silicon Valley aims to showcase the potential of the Korean startup ecosystem globally through its budding entrepreneurs. 15 selected Korean startups will pitch their startups to leading VC firms and accelerators in Silicon Valley.

TIPS is South Korea’s leading startup accelerator, and beSUCCESS is one of South Korea’s oldest startup media companies which connects the Korean startup ecosystem to global markets through its media websites, events and accelerator programs.

The TIPSX beSUCCESS Korean startup Showcase has been a successful program attracting global investors to invest in Korean startups. Alumni of the program, ed-tech startup Riiid has raised $250 million, AI startup Nota raised $23 million in funding from global investors, and 4D imaging radar solution startup bitsensing has raised a total of $21 million in funding since its inception.

The 2019 & 2020 editions of the program were held in San Fransisco and Palo Alto. In 2019, nine deep-tech Korean startups participated with their innovative and talented founders in fields like med tech, consumer tech, social impact, etc.

In 2020, 10 tech startups pitched their innovative technologies at the event to potential investors. In 2021, the program was held online, with ten startups participating.

The 5th edition of TIPSX beSUCCESS Korean Startup Showcase promises an outstanding event and stage for Korean startups to showcase their entrepreneurship prowess to global investors. The event will have attendees get a first look at the promising startups’ pitches, meet the founders, and network with other top-tier investors, accelerators and corporate strategists. The investor and the startup founders will also have the opportunity to interact through one-on-one meetings.

TIPS is an Accelerator Investment-Driven Tech Incubator Program for Startups. It identifies and nurtures the most promising startups with innovative ideas and groundbreaking technologies. To support them when entering the global marketplace, it appoints and designates successful venture founders – now angel investors and leaders of technological enterprises – as their incubators/accelerators.

The TIPS program has seen significant success for its startups. Per their records, 423 startups have received over $71.7 million in investments from accelerators, $137.8 million as R&D funds, $504.9 million as post-investments, and 55 startups have gone for global expansion.

Scroll below to read about the 15 startups participating including their traction, current funding raised and current investors.

Korean Startup Showcase 2022 Pitching sessions:

2 pitching sessions are being organized as part of the showcase on October 12th, 2022 and October 13th, 2022. Investors interested in attending the pitching sessions can sign up for any of the 2 events:

Pitching session on October 12th, 2022, in San Francisco from 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM, at O’Melveny & Myers LLP. office – Two Embarcadero Center, 28th Floor, San Francisco, CA 94111

Pitching session on October 13th, 2022, in Menlo Park from 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM at O’Melveny & Myers LLP. office – 2765 Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park, CA 94025

Sign up for pitching sessions using this form:

Loading…

The 15 startups participating in the showcase:

Company Name	Website	Founded year	Equity Capital Raised(USD) so far	Current Investor Lists	Short Description	Traction
GOMI CORPORATION	www.gomicorp.com	2019	USD 15.6 million	1. F&F Partners 2. KB Investment 3. POSCO CAPITAL 4. UBIQUOSS Investment 5. HL Holdings 6. DS Asset 7. IBK 8. MDI Ventures 9. TRAUM Investment 10. The Invention LAB	Gomi Corporation is an innovative global commerce solutions company that provides one-stop solution for overseas expansion. Our all-in-one solution encompasses the services for consulting, import licensing, SCM and local fulfillment, local/global distribution and marketing, while also providing CS service. By entering the U.S., one of the world's largest markets, we aim to expand product categories and diversify distribution channels by country/industry, thereby increasing our competitiveness as a global commerce solutions company and achieve sales that meet the BEP(Break-Even Point). Beyond the existing business model that supports exports of K-brand products to Southeast Asia, we aim to develop a new business model by discovering globally competitive partners in various product categories in the U.S. market. We will sign exclusive rights to export and distribute their products and sell them in Southeast Asia and Korea.	1. We have partnered with more than 622 brands and 14,000 SKUs. 2. In July 2022, the monthly sales surpassed 7 billion KRW. 3. In February 2022, we raised 12.5 billion KRW in Series B round. 4. In August 2021, the monthly active users (MAU) reached 3 million. 5. In April 2021, we raised 5.5 billion KRW in Series A round. 6. In February 2020, we raised 50 million KRW in Pre-Series A round. - In November 2019, we raised 200 million KRW in seed funding.
PuzzleData	https://www.puzzledata.com/home_eng/	2015	USD 4.5 Mil	1. Enlight Ventures 2. POSTECH Holdings 3. Samsung Venture Investment 4. Hi Investment Partners (Previously Soorim) 5. Korea Growth Investment Corp. 6. Hyundai Venture Investment 7. CJ Investment (Previously Timewise)	PuzzleData provides the process intelligence platform enabling process analysis, management, and improvement. The platform is the package software based on process mining technology which make it easier to analyze the flow of digital footprint like operational process, customer behavior on web/app, etc. The software contributes on achieving marketing/sales insights as well as improve process operation. In view of analysis, this is fast and more efficient way of process management. It has broad coverage of usecases from back-end process optimization, front-end productivity, customer journey analysis to digital twin or RPA. Also it covers all industry usages.	1. Number of enterprise clients : more than 30 in Korea 2. Amount of fund raising : about USD 4.5 Mil.
BLINKERS INC.	https://www.blinkers.company/	2021	USD 2.5 Mil	1. Bluepoint partners 2. KB Investment 3. FuturePlay 4. D.CAMP	We run the world's first wine and liquor NFT investment bank, Bank of Wine. 1. Bank of Wine provides a solution to legally trade and invest in wine by issuing NFTs corresponding to real wines. Wine is a good investment. Investing in wine is risk-free and reliably exceeds the annual return of 15-25%. However, under the current Liquor Tax Law in South Korea, individuals who do not have a license to sell alcoholic beverages cannot trade wine to others. Bank of Wine presents NFT as a way to legally invest in wine. 2. Bank of Wine offers exclusive membership benefits to NFT holders. On July 28, Bank of Wine successfully held a luxury VIP event worth KRW 300 million, which came into the limelight. In addition to luxury parties, Bank of Wine plans to provide services such as winery tours and private tastings in the future. 3. Bank of Wine preserves customers' wine experiences and precious moments with M-NFT. Bank of Wine issues M-NFT (Memory-NFT) when consumer opens the wine by burning the NFT. By issuing M-NFT in the form of wine bottles and glasses, we provide a service that enables consumers to preserve their special memories of wine forever.	1. Recruitment: Formed a science and technology-based team from KAIST and UNIST - Affiliate: 34 (Wineries, Wine importer, NFT project teams, etc.) 2. Number of members: 1,400+ (including number of membership and community) 3. Minting amount: 280 million won 4. Investment attraction: KRW 3 billion (including government tasks such as Tips) 5. Award: D-Camp D-Day won in February, National Assembly commendation, etc
Looko Inc.	www.acloset.app	2020	USD 2.5 M	1. Spring Camp 2. KT Investment 3. Laguna Investment	Our service, acloset, is a mobile app service that allows individuals to easily build their own digital wardrobe, recommend and share fashion contents. Users can quickly and easily upload their clothes to the app easily thanks to our AI technology, and enjoy personalized recommendations based on their clothes data. Users can also get recommendations on social content about how other people are dressing. Also, users can become an fashion influencer within the community.	1. Raised over $2.5M from top-tier VCs - 800K+ users with 4.3+ stars average app store reviews as of 9/2022 - Monthly active users of 160K+ as of 9/2022. 2. Proprietary AI tech to fashion image processing and fashion feature extraction - More than 20 M clothes data and 1 M outfit combination data from users. 3. Gathering more than 50 k data a day. 4. Automatic data gathering system for fashion items. (updating more than 100 k items for each day) - More than 1k heavy users using our service for their job (potentialy possible for B2C SaaS)
Noutecompany Corp.	https://www.webudding.com/en	2018	USD 2.4 Mil	1. Oasis Angel Investment Club 2. Dcamp 3. Schmidt (DSC investment) 4. Capstone Partners Co., Ltd. 5. Strong Ventures	As the non-face-to-face academic environment becomes more common due to COVID-19, the demand for content for tablet writing apps is rapidly increasing around the world. Webudding is a web-based digital stationery service for content for such tablet writing apps, with categories of templates such as diaries, planners, notebooks, and sticker images used in tablet writing. Currently, Webudding has 1,700 sellers (1,100 Korean and 600 overseas) providing 12,000 content products and 100,000 MAUs., being the largest digital stationery in Asia. We try to go to the global market to target 1 billion tablet users worldwide.	1. Pre-Series A round Startup from Seoul - Raised over $2.4M from Top-tier industry VCs in South Korea - 300%+ YoY Revenue Growth as of 08/2022 - 100K+ MAU as of 08/2022 - 39%+ CMGR of Total Metrics as of 08/2022 2. The Largest Platform for Digital Stationery in Asia - 1,700+ Multinational Creators from 14+ countries - 12,000+ Digital Stationery Contents Specialized in Tablet uses - Total 1M+ instagram followers following Webudding's creators 3. From Niche Market to Global Market - 120K+ Sale Counts, concentrated in Digital Stationery contents - Targeting 1B+ Tablet Users Worldwide - Young average age(25) of whole team members, same as the average age of Webudding Users
TissenBioFarm	http://www.tissenbiofarm.com/	2021	USD 1.9 Million	1. Mirae Holdings, LTD 2. Stonebridge Ventures 3. Envisioning Partners 4. FuturePlay	We develop next-generation cultured meat with proprietary biofabrication technologies. Cultured meat is a type of alternative protein, which is becoming increasingly important in today's climate crisis era, because animal agriculture accounts for approx. 15% of the global greenhouse gases and is one of the biggest sectors accelerating climate change. Our goal is to become the No.1 cultured meat company in the world. Our strength is that we can mass produce whole-cut meat with the texture and marbling of real meat, which our competitors cannot. We have created a novel production method by reverse-engineering 3D bioprinting technology, eliminating all the inefficient factors in tonnage mass production, and retaining some of advantages of 3D bioprinting to produce meat texture and marbling. In this way, the meat texture is implemented when fabricating cultured meat, and micro- and macro- marbling can be replicated. It currently takes only 7-10 minutes to build over 10cm-scale construct. The time will be reduced by more than 50,000 times in mass production.	1. Raised approx. $2M from top-tier industry VCs within 9 months from foundation 2. 124% growth of company value within 8 months 3. Applied for 4 patents on cultured meat production method and business model 4. Won 5 prizes in various startup contests 5. Recieved over $0.5M from 16 startup programs supported by the government 6. $630B global market by 2040, taking up 35% of the total meat market (AT Kearney)
Ad-Shield	https://www.ad-shield.io/	2019	$1.5M	1. Bass Investment 2. Hashed 3. the Ventures 4.Kingley	- B2B enterprise solution that recovers (adds) ~30-40% of ad revenue that is being blocked / lost by ad blockers	1. Currently going through an explosive growth with major publishers onboarded as customers, serving ~5bn monthly pageviews post beta launch in March 2. No-brainer solution for publishers with over 30% upside in ad revenue with zero to minimal cost and risk 3. Secured an anchor client in the US and seeing an impressive traction already; opening a pre-A round to prepare for an official US launch in 4Q22
http://indj.net/eninDJ Corporation	http://indj.net/en	2019	USD 1.45Mil	1. Gwangju Angel Investment Matching Fund 2. Bitgaram No. 1 University Start-up Investment Association 3. Magna Asia Culture Center Development Fund 4. Magna Rising Star 2 Fund 5. Korea Technology Finance Corporation Request sent to owner.	inDJ is the most innovative music streaming radio application that recommends music based on the user's emotion and situation using AI. Also, inDJ's AI can analyzes the music by its instrument and lyric and understand the sentiment of music, then, recommend the best music that fits. Furthermore, using the user's emotion and situation data inDj can collaborate with other business such as AI vehicles and health care service	1. Raised $1.45M from top-tier industry VCs and angels 2. Rank 1th and 5th place in App store and Google play store 3. 200,000 download with 4.0+ stars average app store reviews 4. Signed a $500,00 MOU with company in China(EQ Ent, 7key music, Tanghe Movie) 5. Signed a $1,100,00 MOU with company in Southeast Aaian Market(ARIS, ME Mobile, CBD Robot, YTEK, ASPEKTI) 6. Register or apply for more than 10 patents - $0.48M in projected revenues for last year(Beta service) 7. AI can analyze more than 20,000 situation 8. AI algorithm has almost 80% correctness 9. MAU is growing minimum 5% very month 10. Have 10.5M expected Pre-Valuation(Start-up)
Aurum Care Management	https://www.aurumcare.ai/	2020	USD 1 Mil		We provide audio, text message, and App based services depending on the segments of the patients who suffer from rare and/or chronic diseases. We solve the problems that the most patients with chronic diseases have that are mental breakdowns, medication adherence issues, and symptom comparisons.	1. Investment: Raised between $1M - $2M as of 09/2022 2. Increase in number of data: Secured more than 1200 cases and 200hr of calls with more than 250 patients 3. Patient Satisfaction Level: Maintain 100% patient satisfaction level Number of Substantial Pipelines: 1 patent acquired and 3 patents applications are filed 4. Reaching Development Milestone: Audio and text service developed and the App is preparing for a open beta 5. Cashflow: About $530K revenue generated from sales(excluding investments) in 2021 and projected to reach 12M by 2024
Kinava Co. LLC	https://npcx.ai/	2015	USD 1 Mil	1. Bon Angels 2. Sparklabs Ventures 3. Strong Ventures	Kinava is a world leading R&D company of organic-waste-to-energy & resources by Hybrid Hydrothermal Carbonization Technology. The company has a proven records converting various organic waste, such as sewage sludge, livestock manure, food waste, wood waste, and dying factory sludge into biofuel and biochar. It’s technology has been recognized by several conglomerate companies by R&D and marketing collaboration agreement. Recently the company acquired a couple contracts from Samsung Engr and Korean Gov for commecial scale plant establishment.	1. Revenue for the last 3 years from the first day of company is $850K. 2. Acqurie $4.5M R&D support in total from Tips, SMA, East-West Electric Power. 3. SMBA and Environment Department of Korea selected Kinava as a 100 Green New Deal company with $3M R&D support. 4. Secure $4.5M fuding through seed round and series A with 4 major VCs: Industrial Bank of Korea, Posco-Cornar Investment, Mirae Holdings, Cooloidge Corner Investment. 5. 20 patents filed so far and two of them was estimated as $21M valuation. 6. New R&D center was established ($1.5M asset) outside of the Hanyanng Univ Campus. 7. Recently have $3.6M contract from Samsung Engineering and $3M contract from SMB for commerical plant buid-up (20T/d each). 8. Quoted $25M for Rex Lumbers, a US lumber company, and is working for due diligence for Kinava's W2E technology.
MoveAWheeL, Inc.	mv-w.com	2020	USD 0.8 Mil	1. IPS Ventures 2. Korea Business Angels Association 3. Busan United Holdings	We, MoveAWheeL, have a breakthrough sensing technology that can detect irregularities on road surface such as pot holes, breaks and even the black ice. In particular, special AI and IoT techniques are used to detect black ice. We applied this technology and developed road infrastructure sensors and the vehicle sensor which can be installed in a car. Our road surface infra sensors are designed to automatically control snow removal systems on the road. and the vehicle sensor is designed to extract the wide range of road surface information.	1. Raised over $2.5M from top-tier VCs - 800K+ users with 4.3+ stars average app store reviews as of 9/2022 2. Monthly active users of 160K+ as of 9/2022 3. Proprietary AI tech to fashion image processing and fashion feature extraction 4. More than 20 M clothes data and 1 M outfit combination data from users. 5. Gathering more than 50 k data a day 6. Automatic data gathering system for fashion items. (updating more than 100 k items for each day) 7. More than 1k heavy users using our service for their job (potentialy possible for B2C SaaS)
BGPworks	https://boxhero-app.com/en	2017	USD 500k	Kakao Ventures	We are building a SaaS product for inventory management market. Existing inventory solutions are too complex, don't support real-time inventory control. BoxHero is first complete inventory SaaS for SME. With mobile first stretegy, we've got tractions from various industries, over 100 countries. - Support PC, Mobile, Web - Realtime collaboration with team mates. - Barcode scan with mobile camera - Barcode generation, print - Sales Orders, Purchase Orders - Analytics features. (turn rate, total asset..)	1. 2,300 paying customers from various industries, across 50 countries. 2. MRR is 51k, the average monthly revenue per customer is $22.98 3. 10,000 monthly active customers including free plan customers. 4. 56% of customers are from South Korea, 15% of customers are from US. 5. 150%~200% YoY MRR growth since 2019 6. Estimated 1M revenue in the end of 2022 7. The average churn rate is 4.6% in 2021
Tart Inc	https://prap.kr	2019	USD 300K	1. Krypton 2. Owl Ventures 3. CNT TECH 4. Korea Venture Investment Corp	PRAP is an alternative investment platform. PRAP provides features that end user can compare fiften thounds investment products from 20 each provider at once.	Daily Registeration User Daily Active User
Testbank	https://solvetheproblem.io https://www.testbank.ai/	2019	USD 0.2 Mil	- Postech Holdings	We are digitizing test preparation market in Korea for now, and hoping to expand the application of the technology we have. Even almost every middle/high school student have tablet PC, the lack of digital contents lead students to do strange behaviors such as illegal sharing of scanned files or carrying all the books they use everyday. The reason of publishing company not selling digital version of workbooks is the difference between publishing books and making applications. That is the starting point the technology we have built, the technology we have turns static PDFs into a interactive or dynamic pages so that users can effectively use them in their digital devices such as tabletPCs and mobile phones. We have built very precise and costly conversion process using machine learning technology and computer vision based algorithms.	1. Pivotted to the current item in July 2021 with two members of the team 2. Won 2nd prize of AI competition that KISED(Korea Institute of Startup & Entrepreneurship Development) held in Nov, 2021. 3. Successfully raised seed investment from postech holdings in Feb, 2022. 4. Selected as a participant of TIPS program , which gives nearly 400 k USD subsidy for R&D in Apr, 2022. 5. Successfully build the team of 7 members in 6 month upon the first seed investment. 6. Launch our 1st version of the application targeting Korean SAT maket in Sep, 2022. 7. Expect to finalize contracts with 4 major publishing companies which wiil take around 30% of test work book market share collectively for the printed version by end of 2022. 8. Will register 3 patents by end of this year, and add 5 more pending patent to build comprehensive patent strategy.
Gadget Korea INC.	https://www.usimsa.com	2020	USD 180,000	1.Blue Point Partners 2.1004 Partners 3.One Billion Individual Angel Investment Association	We are providing an eSIM roaming data service for overseas travel. We are making data available to travelers without interruption by instantly connecting data from a local country in a minute. We manage the data quality of our customers with the eSIM control system and constantly strive to connect more high-quality data. Get fast data connectivity anytime, anywhere. Furthermore, we plan to create a roaming super app as a free Internet phone service. When I travel, I dream of a day when I can use my data freely without looking for Wi-Fi, roaming with local carriers, or replacing USIM.	1. Financing from Korea's Best AC Bluepoint Partners 2. Sales and user growth of 1,166% compared to the beginning of the year 22 3. Customer average rating of 4.7 4. China mobile HK, LG U+, and AIS network partnership 5. Cumulative 10,000 users. 6. Korea's No. 1 eSIM Data Share 7. Experienced 8X YoY revenue growth in 2022