unicorn

Private equity EQT set to invest in KKR-backed fashion unicorn Musinsa

EQT, Europe's largest private equity firm, is set to invest 20 billion to 30 billion won ($14 million-$21 million) in Musinsa, South Korea’s f...

Mergers & Acquisitions Yanolja launches NOL Universe after merging OTA platforms

SoftBank-backed Yanolja Co., South Korea’s top travel and accommodation booking platform operator, on Friday introduced a new platform called ...

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...

Mergers & Acquisitions Rebellions · Sapeon Korea merger, the first domestic AI chip unicorn

Rebellions Inc., a South Korean artificial intelligence chip design startup, officially merged with Sapeon Korea to form the first domestic AI chi...

E-commerce China’s Alibaba acquires 5% of Ably in 1st equity investment in Korean firm

Chinese online shopping giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. has invested 100 billion won ($71.4 million) in South Korea’s top women’s cloth...

Korean startups South Korea’s next AI unicorns stand out at KPAS 2024

South Korea’s major telecom company KT Corp. and the country’s leading financial newspaper The Korea Economic Daily have teamed up to sc...

Korean games NCSOFT teams up with Vietnamese unicorn VGN to tap SE Asian market

South Korea’s gaming behemoth NCSOFT Corp. has set up a joint venture with Vietnamese tech unicorn VNG Corp. to tap into Southeast Asia starti...

Mergers & Acquisitions Rebellions-Sapeon Korea merger to challenge Nvidia’s AI chip dominance

Rebellions Inc., a South Korean artificial intelligence chip design startup, is merging with its crosstown rival Sapeon Korea Inc., an AI chip firm ...

Korean startups Korean AI startups yet to join global unicorn club

The number of artificial intelligence unicorns has been on the rise thanks to the AI boom, but none of these South Korean AI startups have yet to jo...

Venture capital VC firm DSC Investment forms Korea's largest secondary fund

South Korean asset manager DSC Investment has formed the country’s largest-ever fund for venture capital secondaries to explore opportunities ...

Korean startups Korean unicorns slow growth to focus on profits

South Korean unicorns, or startups valued at $1 billion or more, are slowing the pace of growth to shore up their bottom lines as they revive l...

Korean startups Korean unicorns’ failed global expedition causes growth concern   

Woowa Brothers Corp. and Viva Republica Inc., South Korea’s most valuable unicorns, have pulled the plug on some of their overseas businesses ...

Korean startups Venture downturn keeps Korean unicorns from acquisitions

South Korean unicorns, or private companies worth $1 billion or more, are increasingly refraining from taking over smaller startups for business exp...

Korean startups Korea’s unicorn startups fly high as IPO plans revived

South Korea’s unicorn startups, or venture firms with a corporate value of at least 1 trillion won ($760 million), are poised to return to the...

Korean startups Naver’s resale platform Kream joins Korean unicorns

Kream Corp., the resale platform of South Korean online portal giant Naver Corp., has emerged as the latest Korean unicorn with a valuation exceedin...

Korean startups Disgruntled investors accuse Fadu of blowing smoke

Fadu Inc., the first unicorn in the South Korean semiconductor sector, which had a triumphant market debut three months ago, is facing the backlash ...

Business & Politics S.Korean gov't to invest $827 mn in cyber security sector by 2027

South Korea will invest 1.1 trillion won ($827.1 million) in the information security sector by 2027, nearly double its combined budget of 556.9 bil...

Regulations Go bolder with regulatory reform to foster unicorns in Korea: KERI

Regulatory reform is still slow in South Korea, obstructing innovation in technologies and industries, and the government must take bolder action to...

Korean startups Ad-tech unicorn Moloco’s endeavor to unlock potential continues

SILICON VALLEY – Moloco Inc., a Silicon Valley-based ad-tech solution startup valued at more than $2 billion, is dreaming big to become a vers...

Korean startups S.Korea has just 1.2% of world's corporate unicorns: study

Among 10 major economies worldwide, South Korea's global share of unicorn companies, or startups with a corporate value of over $1 billion, has shru...

Venture capital Lotte to open Silicon Valley corporate venture capital unit

Lotte Group, a South Korean retail-to-chemical conglomerate, is set to launch a corporate venture capital (CVC) business in Silicon Valley, the glob...

Travel & Leisure Yanolja acquires Israeli tourism tech company Go Global Travel

South Korea's tourism platform unicorn Yanolja has acquired Go Global Travel (GGT), an Israel-based company for global business-to-business (B2B) tr...

Korean startups Sports tech startups poised to launch next Korean unicorn

UK Premier League Tottenham Hotspur star forward Son Heung-min and two-way US MLB icon Shohei Ohtani, a designated pitcher and hitter for the Los An...

Korean startups S.Korean fashion platform Ably attracts $39 mn before Series C round

South Korea’s Ably Corp., operator of the fashion shopping app Ably, has attracted 50 billion won ($39 million) via venture debt amid the slow...

Korean startups Sales of state-sponsored Korean startups up 40% in 2022

South Korean startups sponsored by the government’s information and communication technology acceleration program, dubbed K-Global Project, sa...

Korean startups FADU joins ranks of unicorns as S.Korea’s first fabless chip firm

FADU Technology has become South Korea’s first fabless semiconductor unicorn after successfully raising funds from share sales before its init...

Electric vehicles SK Signet lands EV charger contract in US

SK Signet Inc., an affiliate of South Korea's SK Group that makes and sells electric vehicle (EV) chargers, on Monday said it received its first ord...

Travel & Leisure Yanolja becomes Korea's first company to join UAE's Global Unicorn Center

South Korea's Yanolja Co. a leisure booking platform company, announced on Thursday that it has become the first Korean company to join the Global U...

Artificial intelligence S.Korea behind in ChatGPT race with zero AI unicorns

South Korea, one of the most wired countries in the world, lags far behind other countries in attaining unicorn startups in the artificial intellige...

Cloud computing NHN Cloud joins ranks of unicorns with $120 mn funding

NHN Cloud Co., a computer clouding service provider, has raised 150 billion won ($120 million) from South Korea-based IMM Investment, joining the ra...