Breaking down Korea’s 50 top-funded startups

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Hello reader,

I just finished the first volume of the latest season of Stranger Things, and what a ride it was. Don’t worry, there aren’t any spoilers here. The show took a much darker tone and had legitimate scares – something I was definitely not expecting but a change I appreciated.

The main antagonist of this season, Vecna, has truly put the “stranger” in Stranger Things, and I can’t wait to see what comes next when volume two is released in July.

The show has been a hit since its first season came out roughly six years ago, but it’s not just its fan base that has ballooned. Each episode of this latest season reportedly cost US$30 million to make.

For a single production, that’s a huge number, but it still pales in comparison to the scale of funding we’re looking at in today’s premium story.

Today we look at:

• The 50 top-funded startups and tech companies in Korea.
• An Indian edtech firm that joined the unicorn club following its latest fundraise.
• Other newsy highlights such as Bilibili’s upcoming layoffs and fresh capital for an Australia-based drone logistics company.

Premium Summary

Cash for Korean startups

Image credit: Timmy Loen

As an avid gamer, I used to view South Korea solely through the lens of its esports scene. Today, however, it’s clear to me that the country has provided a fruitful environment for startup investment – just ask any of the companies on our list.

• Top dog: Yanolja, an accommodation booking platform, takes first place with over US$1.8 billion of disclosed funding. The bulk of this came from a late-stage funding round in July 2021, when SoftBank Vision Fund poured US$1.8 billion into the platform. Before that, Yanolja had only raised US$188.5 million across two rounds in 2015 and 2019.

• Sipping on Chai: We recently wrote about how fintech firm Chai Corporation managed to obscure its breakup with Terra. The company has landed itself on the 22nd spot on our list, with total funding of US$105 million to date. Its latest funding round was a series B round in December last year, during which it raised US$45 million.

• Park your money here: Everyone loves a good fintech or insurtech solution, but what about parking tech? Parking Cloud provides a cloud-based smart-parking solution with its i Parking service. It has raised US$100 million in disclosed funding, with its recent late-stage funding round in February this year netting it US$80 million.

Voila, it’s funding

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