South Korea’s SparkLabs accelerator reveals the startups joining its fourth batch

SparkLabs, the Seoul-based accelerator founded by Bernard Moon, Jimmy Kim, and Hanjoo Lee, announced the roster for its fourth batch of startups today.

Unlike the accelerators previous two batches, which maintained a rough 50:50 ratio of local teams to foreign teams, the startups comprising its current batch mostly hail from South Korea, with one hailing from the United States and another hailing from Chengdu, China.

SparkLabs has always sought to distinguish itself as an accelerator that gives equal attention to domestic South Korean startups and international startups, leveraging its networks both in Seoul and Silicon Valley. The accelerator grants teams US$25,000 in funding upon entering the three-month program in exchange for up to six percent equity.

Below we’ve laid out the teams in SparkLabs’ latest batch. Expect to learn more about some of them on Tech in Asia in the coming months.

Open21

Open21 is developing touch sensor technology that lets people interact with smart devices via an electric field. The project remains tightly under wraps, but Tech in Asia has been given a crude demo, and even though it’s cliche to compare modern tech to the interactive screens in Minority report, that’s kind of what this is like.

Vengine

Vengine is a job hunting site that aims to connect Korean companies with talented applicants interested in working for a startup. The team is set to launch at the end of the month.

Tree Planet

Tree Planet is a mobile game that lets players plant and nurture virtual trees, which can later be turned into real trees planted by a team of volunteers. The team claims that it has planted over 472,000 trees in 46 forests in nine countries to date. “It’s a social enterprise play,” says Moon. “We’re just saw a good entrepreneur with a good cause to back.”

Beacon Family Doctor

Based out of Chengdu, the team behind Beacon Family Doctor has developed a mobile app that connects middle class Chinese patients with reliable doctors. Moon describes founder Sarah Deng as a “scrappy hustler.”

Stayes

Stayes lets long term visitors to Seoul book housing accommodation from a number of different property owners. Moon admits the startup’s premise resembles that of AirBnB, but adds that the business is growing and still in its infancy. “Their numbers look pretty good in terms of their room occupancy rates and the responses have been good. Closer to Demo Day we can reveal more,” says Chan.

HUD Link

HUD link creates 3D renderings of buildings through algorithmic modeling.

N.Thing

This Korea-based team makes a special flower pot called Planty that lets users water and care for their plants through a mobile app.

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