Kakao Story

Mergers & Acquisitions Mubadala, Goldman Sachs to invest $700 mn in Kakao Mobility

United Arab Emirates’ sovereign wealth fund Mubadala Investment Co. and Goldman Sachs are set to invest a combined $700 million in Kakao Mobil...

Earnings KakaoBank posts record Q1 profit, eyes Thai expansion after Indonesia

KakaoBank Corp., a leading South Korean internet-only bank, posted its highest quarterly profit in the first quarter, defying a drop in interest inc...

Arts Maybe Happy Ending: A robot love story that rewrote Broadway playbook

On an unremarkable evening in November 2024, inside the opulent Belasco Theatre in Manhattan, something quietly historic was taking place.A delicate...

Markets Kakao shares sink on SK Telecom’s stake sell-off news

Kakao Corp. shares underperformed its peers and the broad market on Friday after SK Telecom Co. sold off its entire stake in the South Korean platfo...

Entertainment Kakao Entertainment scraps IPO, seeks new buyer

Kakao Corp., South Korea’s largest mobile platform, is looking to sell a majority stake in Kakao Entertainment Corp., dropping a plan to take ...

Entertainment Kakao Entertainment sheds loss-making units, revives IPO prospects

Kakao Entertainment Corp. has been divesting unprofitable music labels and digital content platforms, which it has gobbled up over the past few year...

Mergers & Acquisitions VIG taps KDB financing to buy 40% stake in Kakao Mobility

South Korea’s private equity firm VIG Partners’ buyout of minority stakes in Kakao Mobility Corp., the nation’s most popular taxi-...

Leadership & Management Kakao founder Kim to resign as control tower chair

Kakao Corp. founder Kim Beom-soo, also known as Brian Kim, will step down as chairman of the South Korean tech giant’s top decision-making bod...

Artificial intelligence Kakao set to announce AI partnership with OpenAI

Kakao Corp., South Korea’s dominant mobile platform, is expected to unveil a business partnership with OpenAI to incorporate the technology of...

IPOs Korean B2B fintech firm Dozn plans Kosdaq IPO for $202.5 mn market cap

South Korea’s business-to-business fintech service provider Dozn is planning an initial public offering on the Kosdaq in February for an estim...

Private equity How STIC Investments’ bet on animal fat processor DK O&T paid off

In South Korea, businesses handling livestock by-products have lacked investor appeal. They were usually mom-and-pop businesses and appeared to hold...

Webtoons Piccoma tops consumer spending ranking in Japan

Kakao Piccoma, a Japanese digital comics app subsidiary of South Korean mobile giant Kakao Corp., topped the consumer spending ranking in the Japane...

Real estate Koramco seeks to sell Seoul prime office tower in $272 million deal

South Korea’s Koramco REITs Management & Trust Co. is poised sell a prime office building in Seoul in an estimated 400 billion won ($272 m...

Korean stock market Korean stocks diverge: Winners, losers of Yoon’s martial law debacle

South Korean stocks showed clear divergences on Wednesday amid a mixed market outlook as President Yoon Suk Yeol’s martial law declaration, re...

Entertainment SM's UK K-pop group Dear Alice to debut with Gamma

South Korea's SM Entertainment Co. partnered with the US-based music label "Gamma." to globally debut its first British K-Pop boy group Dear Alice.A...

Logistics Kakao Mobility, Samyang Logistics partner on fulfillment services

Kakao Mobility Corp., South Korea’s most popular ride-hailing app operator, said on Monday that it partnered with logistics firm Samyang Logis...

Future mobility Kakao Mobility to launch outdoor robot delivery

Kakao Mobility Corp., South Korea’s largest taxi-hailing app operator, said on Monday that it signed a business agreement with Robotis, a comp...

Webtoons Instagram poised to crack Korean webcomics market

Big tech has begun its encroachment on the South Korean webcomics market, largely dominated by local players over the past two decades, fanning fear...

Artificial intelligence Kakao to launch AI messenger service Kanana in H1 2025

South Korea’s platform giant Kakao Corp. will roll out Kanana, a conversational AI agent-integrated messenger app, in the first half of next y...

Artificial intelligence S.Korean AI content platform Zeta surpasses 1 mn users

South Korean generative artificial intelligence (AI) startup Scatter Lab said on Monday its interactive AI content platform Zeta has surpassed 1 mil...

Future mobility Kakao Mobility, Samsung C&T to co-work on robot, parking solutions

Kakao Mobility Corp., South Korea’s largest taxi-hailing app operator, announced on Friday that it signed a business agreement with Samsung C&...

Regulations FTC fines Kakao Mobility $55 mn for alleged unfair taxi-hailing service

South Korea’s antitrust body has fined Kakao Mobility Corp., the country’s largest taxi-hailing app operator, 72.4 billion won ($54.9 mi...

Artificial intelligence OpenResearch gets $7.5 mn seed round

OpenResearch, an AI search service founded by former Kakao Brain CEO Kim Il-Doo, said on Thursday that it got a seed round 10 billion won ($7.5 mill...

Robotics Hoban partners with Kakao, Bear Robotics for robot-based services

Hoban Construction Ltd. announced on Friday that it has signed a business agreement (MOU) with Kakao Mobility and Bear Robotics to standardize the o...

Food & Beverage Ashley Queens’ success story: Premium dining, but at affordable prices

Korean food, or K-food, is popular around the world. And it’s almost become a rite of passage for foreigners who come to South Korea to try tr...

Energy Kakao Pay to run Pangyo office with renewable energy

South Korea’s Kakao Pay Corp. said on Monday that it signed a green premium purchase agreement with Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO), the So...

Mergers & Acquisitions Kakao to merge dk techin and Kakao Brain

South Korea's Kakao Corp. said on August 23 that its mobile solution development subsidiary dK Techin Corp. will merge with its AI technology affili...

Blockchain SY Lee: A Korean startup creator who fetched $80 mn for Story Protocol

Seung Yoon Lee, a South Korean startup creator, was in his early 20s when he co-founded Radish Fiction Inc., a US-based mobile fiction platform, in ...

Future mobility Kakao Mobility introduces robot delivery at Resom Resort

South Korea's Kakao Mobility announced on Wednesday that it partnered with Hoban Hotels & Resorts to operate the robot delivery service Bring at...

Tech, Media & Telecom Kakao to launch conversational AI platform for B2C commerce

South Korean mobile platform giant Kakao Corp. said on Thursday that it will accelerate its artificial intelligence push by launching a conversation...