Kakao Ventures

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...

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...

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...

Electronics LG Innotek ventures into automotive AP module market

LG Innotek Co., a major South Korean electronics parts developer, has forayed into the automotive application processor (AP) module market, poised f...

Automobiles Hyundai Motor launches future strategy division overseeing M&As

Hyundai Motor Group has created a future business strategy division that serves as a control tower for the automotive group’s expansion into n...

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...

Petrochemicals HS Hyosung Advanced Materials seeks to sell tire steel cord business

South Korea’s HS Hyosung Advanced Materials Corp. is seeking to sell its tire steel cord business to secure funds for its new growth ventures ...

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...

E-commerce Korea’s Shinsegae, China’s Alibaba to set up e-commerce joint venture

South Korea’s retail conglomerate Shinsegae Group has joined forces with Chinese online shopping giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. to better co...

Bio & Pharma Celltrion BioSolutions launched to venture into CDMO

Celltrion Inc. on Tuesday launched its contract development and manufacturing organization unit Celltrion BioSolutions Co. in its foray into the CDM...

Automobiles Hyundai AutoEver establishes JV in Indonesia

South Korea's Hyundai AutoEver Corp. said on Monday it built the joint venture PT Terra Link technology in Indonesia with India's MapmyIndia. T...

Automobiles Hyundai, BAIC to inject $1.1 bn in China joint venture  

Hyundai Motor Co. and its Chinese partner Beijing Motor Corp. (BAIC) will jointly invest $1.1 billion in their joint venture, which produces and sel...

Korean startups Language learning app Speakeasy joins ranks of unicorn startups

Speakeasy Labs Inc., a South Korea-focused language learning app operator, has joined the ranks of unicorn startups after raising $78 million at a v...

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...

Korean games S.Korea's Smilegate invests in GTA producer's studio

Smilegate, the South Korean developer of the world’s top first-person shooter game Crossfire, said on Tuesday it invested in the US-based medi...

Petrochemicals HD Hyundai Oilbank ventures into bioenergy sector as new growth driver

HD Hyundai Oilbank Co., a South Korean crude oil refiner backed by Saudi Aramco, is diversifying its business beyond fossil fuel-centered operations...

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...

Corporate restructuring S.Korea to restructure ailing petrochemical industry

South Korea plans to restructure the struggling domestic petrochemical industry amid intensifying competition with Chinese rivals and oversupply by ...

Tech, Media & Telecom Naver, Saudi Arabia's NHC to build JV

South Korea’s Naver Corp. said on Monday it signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Saudi Arabia’s National Housing Company (NHC...

Construction & Planning Samsung E&A wins $214 mn petrochem plant contract in Qatar

Samsung E&A Co. said on Friday that it won a contract for the RLP ethylene storage plant construction project in Qatar, valued at 300 billion wo...

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...

Electronics LG Electronics to venture into food waste disposer market

LG Electronics Inc., the world's largest home appliance maker, will foray into the food waste disposer market in the first quarter of 2025, heraldin...

Artificial intelligence Korea’s SK Networks partners with Malaysia’s Sunway on AI

South Korean trading company SK Networks Co. has joined forces with Malaysian conglomerate Sunway Group to work together on future growth sectors su...

Korean startups PEN Ventures: A skilled startup accelerator for entrepreneurs going global

For startup accelerators that nurture promising young entrepreneurs, identifying a soon-to-be-unicorn, or a company valued at over $1 billion, in ...