Creator tech startup Awake Corp. attracts over $892,000 in seed funding 

Awake Corp., a startup that operates platforms to assist online creators, recently attracted 1.1 billion won ($892,473) in seed capital. The total amount includes funding from public accelerator Tech Incubator Program for Startup (TIPS).

The South Korean government runs the accelerator program with public and private sector partners to discover and nurture early stage startups.

In just 15 months since the launch of Awake's two services, Meercat IO and Creator Time, the company has received funding from Seoul Techno Holdings. Alex Shin, VC-in-Residence at Samsung Next, More Labs founder Lee Sisun, Kajabi President and Chief Product Officer Solme Kim, and Trevari founder and CEO Yoon Soo-young. More participated in the seed round as individual investors. 

Korea Technology Finance Corp. also guaranteed 1 billion won in assistance to Awake after selecting it as the first Star Valley company of the year. 

Meercat IO is a utilities service for creators. It was launched in November 2020 via the namesake messenger of Kakao Corp. known as KakaoTalk and Naver Corp.’s messenger Line.

The service garnered some 20,000 creators in South Korea, Japan and seven countries in Southeast Asia. The subscriber count is growing at an average 30% increase each month. 

The service also analyzes content shown to 100 million followers per month and provides feedback to the creators. Meercat IO claims its analytics boast 97% accuracy in determining the level of influence using big data. 

The budding startup plans to use the fresh injection of funds to recruit talent. It plans to hire more developers and Product Owners, as those who create and maintain the product backlog are called in startups.

“Our goal is to make the multi-channel networks more efficient and generate the most amount of revenue in the domestic industry this year,” Awake founder and CEO Kim Min-joon said. 

Write to Hong Min Kang at khm@hankyung.com
Jee Abbey Lee edited this article.