Global Startup Ecosystem Report

Mergers & Acquisitions Soon for sale: Altos Ventures-backed Cafe Knotted operator

Silicon Valley-based Altos Ventures-backed Good Food For Good (GFFG), operator of South Korea’s popular dessert cafe, Cafe Knotted, will likel...

Asset management Korea Investment & Securities deepens global ties with 2nd IR in New York

Korea Investment & Securities Co. (KIS), the brokerage unit of Korea Investment Holdings Co., said on Wednesday it hosted its flagship investor ...

Beauty & Cosmetics Seoul-backed K-beauty brands set to make global mark

As Korean beauty products continue to captivate global consumers, five Seoul-based cosmetics and wellness companies are gearing up to penetrate deep...

Asset management Korea Investment & Securities to sell Goldman Sachs funds

Korea Investment & Securities Co. said on Tuesday it is set to sell funds operated by Goldman Sachs Asset Management LP in South Korea, offering...

Korean games NCSOFT invests in US game startup emptyvessel

NCSOFT Corp. has made an equity investment in emptyvessel, a US indie games studio, as part of efforts to expand into the first-person shooter genre...

Mergers & Acquisitions CJ CheilJedang scraps $3.5 bn green bio sale, shifts gears to expansion

CJ CheilJedang Corp., South Korea’s largest food and beverage company, said on Wednesday it has scrapped a planned sale of its green bio busin...

Debt financing Kookmin Bank raises $700 mn in forex bonds amid strong demand

Kookmin Bank, a unit of KB Financial Group, raised $700 million in foreign exchange bonds on Tuesday, signaling a recovery in investor sentiment tow...

Business & Politics US tariffs add risk premium to dollar assets: Maurice Obstfeld

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The US tariff increases are adding risk premiums to dollar-denominated assets, undermining the dollar’s role as a glo...

Beauty & Cosmetics Packaging rides K-beauty wave: Shares of cosmetics container makers soar

As South Korea’s independent beauty brands continue to take the global stage by storm, investors are now looking beyond the creams and serums ...

Games S.Korea’s Krafton to nurture 6 new game studios in India

Krafton Inc., the publisher of global mega-hit “PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds” (PUBG), has selected six new Indian game studios to...

Food & Beverage India: Tantalizing frontier for K-food’s global ambitions beyond China

South Korea’s processed food exports to India have surged to a record 6 trillion won ($4.1 billion), marking a significant milestone in the gr...

Tech, Media & Telecom Samsung fends off Apple to reclaim global smartphone crown in Q1

Samsung Electronics Co. has regained its position as the world’s top smartphone vendor in the first quarter, outpacing Apple Inc. despite the ...

Hydrogen Hylium to supply liquefied hydrogen storage tanks to AirFirst

Hylium Industries Inc., South Korea’s hydrogen liquefier manufacturer, has signed a deal to supply high-capacity liquefied hydrogen storage ta...

Corporate strategy Dongwon Industries to delist wholly owned Dongwon F&B

Dongwon Industries Co., the holding company of South Korea’s seafood-to-logistics Dongwon Group, will delist its canned tuna-manufacturing sub...

Artificial intelligence KT rolls out Thai-tailored large language model

South Korean telecom service provider KT Corp. has built a large language model (LLM) platform tailored for the Thai market in collaboration with Ja...

Carbon neutrality SK Innovation E&S, JB Financial team up for renewable energy loans

JB Financial Group Co., the parent company of Jeonbuk Bank and Gwangju Bank, will join hands with SK Innovation E&S Co. and InnerGen Co. to roll...

Korean chipmakers SK chairman in Taiwan to deepen ties with TSMC

Chey Tae-won, chairman of SK Group, the parent of SK Hynix Inc., is visiting Taiwan amid the threat of escalating US tariff threats, suggesting the ...

Beauty & Cosmetics Korea launches $27 mn fund to invest in K-beauty startups

South Korea’s Ministry of SMEs and Startups on Thursday announced the launch of a 40 billion won ($27 million) fund to invest in Korean beauty...

Steel POSCO eyes deeper steel, energy ties with global peers

POSCO Group, South Korea’s steelmaking giant, will further bolster its competitiveness in the global steel market and energy value chains thro...

Korean chipmakers SK Hynix beats Samsung to become global No.1 DRAM maker

SK Hynix Inc. has snatched the crown from Samsung Electronics Co. to become the world’s largest memory chip supplier for the first time since ...

Business & Politics Samsung, LG review strategies as Trump slaps Vietnam with steeper tariffs

South Korea’s two leading electronics makers – Samsung Electronics Co. and LG Electronics Inc. – are being forced to reassess thei...

Electronics LG’s global HVAC push takes off with new deal in Singapore

LG Electronics Inc. has landed a deal to supply its heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system to a fulfillment center in Singapore, a...

Automobiles Hyundai Motor launches global talent recruitment program

South Korea’s top automaker Hyundai Motor Co. has launched a global talent recruitment program, beginning April 1 via its official hiring webs...

Bio & Pharma MicroDigital's Disco Pang Pang-inspired bioreactors debut in US

MicroDigital Co., a bio-instrument and diagnostic kit manufacturer, is set to launch single-use bioreactors in the US, marking the first shipment of...

Batteries Samsung SDI launches mass production of 46 mm-diameter batteries

Samsung SDI Co. has become South Korea’s first company to mass-produce cylindrical  46-millimeter(46 mm)-diameter batteries, regarded as ...

Retail Koreans’ craving for luxury goods fades

Until recently, it was not unusual to see people waiting in a long line in front of foreign haute couture brands’ stores early in the morning ...

Pension funds Global assets drive Korean teachers' fund to 11.1% return in 2024

The Korean Teachers’ Credit Union (KTCU) achieved an 11.1% return on investments in 2024, with overseas portfolios in stocks, infrastructure a...

Aerospace & Defense Hanwha Aerospace plans record $2.5 bn rights offering for plant expansion

Hanwha Aerospace Co., a leading South Korean defense company, said on Thursday it is raising 3.6 trillion won ($2.5 billion) in new capital through ...

Venture capital South Korean VCs back US humanoid robot developer Apptronik

South Korean venture capital firms invested undisclosed tens of billions of won, equivalent to tens of millions of dollars, in US humanoid-developin...

Artificial intelligence LG takes on Big Tech AI in reasoning with Exaone Deep

LG AI Research, the artificial intelligence (AI) research and development unit of South Korea's LG Group, has unveiled Exaone Deep, an open-source A...