S.Korean startups eye on Southeast Asia as promising market

SINGAPORE - Southeast Asia with a youth population constituting about one-third of the region’s total population and surging internet penetration has emerged as a promising market for South Korean startups, both late-stage and early-stage, seeking new business opportunities.

“Singapore, which is Southeast Asia’s technology and business hub, is expected to serve as a testbed for the global foray (of our services or products),” said An Hyun-Seok, chief executive officer of WeMeet, a Korean alternative meat startup that won the top prize during D.Camp’s first offshore monthly startup demo day in Singapore on Thursday last week.

D.Camp is a non-profit Korean startup accelerator backed by Korea’s Banks Foundation for Young Entrepreneurs, and it has been hosting a startup pitch competition D.Day every month in Korea since 2012.

It held its May D.Day in Singapore last week to introduce outstanding Korean startups to global venture capitalists and help them find new business opportunities in Southeast Asia boasting an abundant youth population with high digital literacy.

The average age in Southeast Asian countries is 31.2 years old, 12.2 years younger than Korea’s 43.4, and internet use in the region has been on the rapid rise, attracting not only startups but also global VCs from around the world.

In particular, Singapore is considered a startup gateway to Southeast Asia thanks to the city state’s generous benefits to startups and VCs after its government in 2014 announced to bolster the country’s information technology communications, networks and big data technologies under its national initiative dubbed The Smart Nation.  

Since 2020, the government has also given a startup meeting certain requirements a 75% tax break for a taxable income of 100,000 Singaporean dollars ($75,500) for three years after its foundation in the Southeast Asian country.

Vietnam and Malaysia also have been popular destinations in Southeast Asian countries for Korean startups not only late-stage startups such as Bucketplace, Kurly and Yanolja but also early-stage ones.

D.CAMP FOR BOTH OUTBOUND AND INBOUND STARTUPS

D.Camp selected the best five from a race recording a 16 to 1 competition ratio to take the finalists to Singapore.

The plant-based meat producer WeMeet makes alternative meat with mushrooms, different from its rivals generally using beans, to guarantee more chewy texture of its products like real meat products than soy-based meat products.

“Our plant-based chicken meat is a good option for people in Southeast Asia, where beef and pork are less preferred,” said An.

WeMeet has also developed its own Guo Bao Rou (sweet and sour pork) and marsala to target other parts of the region.

Kai Health, an embryo image evaluation tool developer for embryologists, came in second place.

The three other contenders included Huraypositive, a developer of a healthcare platform that analyzes the health data of chronic patients and provides them customized healthcare meal plans, medication suggestions and exercise programs; Omnis Labs, a developer of Deep Block, an all-inclusive machine learning suite; and GradeHealthChain that offers personalized health information with various financial products including medical insurances.

Officials from Singapore’s Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), Cento Ventures, Golden Gate Ventures, Openspace Ventures, Tin Men Capital and Insignia Ventures Partners joined the May D.Day demo day as judges.

A day before the pitch competition, D.Camp held another event jointly with Singapore Fintech Association, Enterprise Singapore and Overall Assistance for Start-up Immigration System, where 37 Singapore-based startups' founders and CEOs attended to learn how to make forays into Korea.

D.Camp has been collaborating with IMDA since October last year to help each country’s startups’ global expansion.

“I hope the latest D.Day can pave the way for Korean startups’ forays into Southeast Asia,” said Kim Young-duk, chief director of D.Camp.

Write to Jung-Rak An at jran@hankyung.com
Sookyung Seo edited this article.