South Korea’s top 10 most valuable tech startups

This article is republished with permission from our partners at beSUCCESS. The author is Hugh Yoon.

It’s been five years since the second venture boom started in Korea, and now there are several startups that are big enough to compete with KOSDAQ-listed companies. These success stories create a positive trend as they draw more capital and talent to Korea’s venture industry, away from traditional tech employers like Samsung, Hyundai, and SK Telecom.

Let’s take a look at the top ten biggest tech startups in South Korea. This list is inspired by a Korean-language list on Under The Radar, a local startup-focused blog.

A similar list for the US would be full of social media startups, but there’s only one on this Korean list – albeit in the top spot. The remainder of the list is dominated by ecommerce, gaming, and app development, showing that the competition is thriving in these three main areas.

As a disclaimer, it is debatable whether some of the companies listed can still truly be classified as startups. Also note that precise valuations are not available, so we have conducted extensive research to determine valuation estimates based on available figures. For this article, we specifically set our startup universe from the beginning of the mobile and social tech boom, with a focus on companies that are highly likely to go public soon.

1. KakaoTalk ($2 billion to $3 billion)

Kakao – maker of the popular KakaoTalk messaging app – is one of the most successful startup companies the country has ever produced. KakaoTalk is more than just a messaging app, and it now serves as a mobile-only platform and portal for things like social gaming, ebooks, and music streaming.

Equity in Kakao was recently traded in the OTC market at $70 to $80 per share, which roughly adds up to $2 billion in total value. From a growth perspective, we estimate a total valuation of $5 billion, after applying the industry average sales-to-price ratio of 0.1 to Kakao’s estimated revenue of $500 million in 2015. However, with their business slightly stalling at the moment, experts believe that Kakao’s value will be in the lower range.

Kakao is looking to IPO, probably next year.

Up against rapid growth from larger messaging apps like WeChat, WhatsApp, Line, and Viber, the Korean startup has been very quiet – worryingly quiet? – about its numbers since last July when it reached 100 million registered users.

2. Coupang ($350 million)

3. Ticket Monster ($300 million)

4. WeMakePrice ($200 million)

5. SundayToz ($160 million)

6. PATI Games ($100 million)

7. DevSisters ($75 million)

8. Yellow Mobile ($60 million to $70 million)

9. 4:33 Creative Lab ($40 million to $50 million)

10. Woowa Brothers ($40 million to $50 million)

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