South Korea has got its third unicorn startup after Viva Republica, the company beyond popular payment app Toss, announced it has raised an $80 million round at a valuation of $1.2 billion. This new round is led by U.S. firms Kleiner Perkins and Ribbit Capital, both of which cut their first checks for Korea with this […]
View More Payment service Toss becomes Korea’s newest unicorn after raising $80MCategory: Seoul
Korean e-commerce firm Coupang raises $2 billion from SoftBank’s Vision Fund
Just days after a CIA report concluded that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, SoftBank’s Vision Fund — the gargantuan investment vehicle anchored by a $45 billion investment from Saudi Arabia’s PIF sovereign fund — is back in check-writing action. Coupang, Korea’s largest e-commerce firm, revealed today that it has […]
View More Korean e-commerce firm Coupang raises $2 billion from SoftBank’s Vision FundKorean AI startup Skelter Labs lands strategic investment to expand to Southeast Asia
Korean AI startup Skelter Labs is expanding to Southeast Asia after it pulled in undisclosed funding from Singapore-based VC firm Golden Gate Ventures. Skelter Labs was founded in 2015 by founded by Ted Cho, the former engineering site director at Google Korea. It started out developing apps and services that made use of AI but then […]
View More Korean AI startup Skelter Labs lands strategic investment to expand to Southeast AsiaKorean lending startup PeopleFund raises $11M led by chat app Kakao’s payment unit
South Korean peer-to-peer lending startup PeopleFund is in the money itself after it raised an $11 million Series B funding round that was led by Kakao Pay, the fintech division of Kakao, Korea’s top messaging firm. The deal comes as the country’s P2P marketplace continues to grow with a competitive field of players. A newer arrival […]
View More Korean lending startup PeopleFund raises $11M led by chat app Kakao’s payment unitLocation-based virtual reality is increasing its footprint in the U.S.
Earlier this year, in a small, grey-walled storefront inside a very large mall in Torrance, Calif. (just past the AMC Center) , the virtual reality game-maker Survios planted its first flag in the market for location-based gaming. It’s one of several companies (many based in Los Angeles) that are turning the city into a hub […]
View More Location-based virtual reality is increasing its footprint in the U.S.Esports Overwatch League heads to hipster Brooklyn for its finals
What could be more perfect than moving the inaugural championship finals for an eSports league from its Los Angeles home to Brooklyn? For Overwatch League, the esports conference created by fiat from Activision Blizzard, the move is the first step in its plans for housing esports teams in cities around the country. Heading from sunny […]
View More Esports Overwatch League heads to hipster Brooklyn for its finalsICO services: Lots of barnacles but no whales
Nearly every aspect of the current ICO market is pay-for-play or otherwise tainted. I do not paint the industry with such a broad brush lightly but this sort of chicanery hasn’t existed since the heyday of print media when journalists – myself included – took long, convoluted trips to distant headquarters where they enjoyed, as […]
View More ICO services: Lots of barnacles but no whalesSouth Korean capital Seoul mulls “S-Coin” tokens and blockchain-based government
South Korea has been at the forefront of the blockchain movement, with some of the highest density of cryptocurrency traders anywhere in the world. Now, as the frenzy around cryptocurrency prices recedes (Bitcoin is around $7350 right now, down from a high of almost $20,000 last December), the country is starting to consider the more […]
View More South Korean capital Seoul mulls “S-Coin” tokens and blockchain-based government