Kakao Ventures
Scope
Date
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Venture capital
Venture capital heavyweights tighten belts after 13-year spending spree
Venture capital firms at home and abroad are tightening their belts, following growing concerns over inflation and continued interest hikes by maj...
May 26, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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Venture capital
Humbling experience leads to VC success – LG Tech Ventures CEO
Kim Dong-su, CEO of Silicon Valley-based LG Technology Ventures said that the failures he experienced while working at a boutique investment firm ha...
May 24, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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Korean startups
SwatchOn connects fabric wholesalers to overseas fashion designers
“We had the overseas market in mind from the get-go,” global fabric sale platform SwatchOn’s CEO Lee Woo-seok told The Korea Econo...
May 19, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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Webtoons
Kakao to merge US webtoon, web novel platforms
South Korea’s Kakao Entertainment Co. is set to merge Tapas Media Inc. and Radish Fiction Inc., its webtoon and mobile novel platforms in Nort...
May 19, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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Entertainment
CJ ENM, Naver to launch drama studio joint venture in Japan
South Korean entertainment powerhouse CJ ENM Co. and online platform giant Naver Corp. are launching a drama production studio in Japan to tap into ...
May 12, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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Future mobility
LG’s telecommunication unit joins UAM race in Korea
LG Group’s telecommunication unit joined the race for South Korea’s urban air mobility (UAM) to secure a future growth engine in coopera...
May 11, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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Korean startups
CJ ventures into fandom platform with $17 mn investment
CJ Group, one of South Korea’s largest family run conglomerates, or chaebol, is venturing into the fandom platform business with a 22.4 billio...
May 11, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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E-commerce
Korean app market One Store to venture into SE Asia
One Store Co., South Korea's homegrown app store, will venture into Taiwan and Southeast Asia within the year, aiming to crack Google and Apple's du...
May 10, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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Earnings
Kakao CEO vows messenger app reform as Q1 misses forecasts
South Korea’s leading online platform operator Kakao Corp. plans to drastically change the way KakaoTalk, the country’s top mobile messe...
May 04, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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Electric vehicles
LS Group revs up to enter EV charging business
South Korean conglomerate LS Group is eyeing the growing electric vehicle industry and the markets derived from it. The group announced the lau...
Apr 29, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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Webtoons
Kakao to launch webtoon platform in Indonesia for SE Asia
Kakao Entertainment Co. will launch a webtoon platform in Indonesia, the most populous country in Southeast Asia, to expand the business in the regi...
Apr 27, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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Korean startups
Startup accelerator Klim Ventures secures $4 mn in bridge capital
South Korea’s startup accelerator Klim Ventures announced Tuesday it has secured 5.5 billion won ($4 million) worth of bridge capital. ...
Apr 26, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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Korean games
Kakao Games invests $15 mn in Playable Worlds for global expansion
Kakao Games Corp., a game publishing unit of Korea’s web service giant Kakao Corp., has invested $15 million in US game studio Playable Worlds...
Apr 22, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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Venture capital
KDB resumes global venture IR event in Singapore
South Korea’s state-run Korea Development Bank (KDB) said on Thursday that KDB NextRound, the bank’s venture investment platform, will h...
Apr 21, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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Bio & Pharma
FutureChem seeks FDA nod for prostate cancer radiopharma trials
FutureChem Co., a South Korean radiopharmaceutical company, is seeking the US Food and Drug Administration’s approval for clinical tests of it...
Apr 20, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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Korean startups
Fortune-telling app receives $4 mn in Altos Ventures-led Series A funding
Chunmyung and Company, the operator of its namesake fortune-telling app, announced on Tuesday it has secured Series A funding worth five billion w...
Apr 19, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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Upcoming IPOs
One Store refiles IPO application, changing peer group list
One Store Co., investment firm SK Square Co.'s homegrown app store, is gearing up for an initial public offering to be held in May. The local app st...
Apr 18, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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Entertainment
Kakao Entertainment sets up content ecosystem with M&As
Kakao Entertainment Corp., a unit of South Korea’s top mobile messenger app operator, has established its own content ecosystem including crea...
Apr 14, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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Tech, Media & Telecom
Naver, Kakao shares to fall further on sluggish outlook
Shares of Naver Corp. and Kakao Corp. are expected to decline further after South Korea’s top two platform giants already lost 20 trillion won...
Apr 12, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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IPOs
Kakao's game unit behind Odin valued at $2.7 bn before IPO
Lionheart Studio Corp., the firm behind South Korea’s popular mobile game Odin, is preparing to go public as early as this year, with its ente...
Apr 12, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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Korean games
Netmarble, NCSoft, Kakao, DoubleUGames on top publisher list
South Korea’s major tech companies such as Netmarble Corp., NCSoft Corp., Kakao Corp. and DoubleUGames were selected among the world’s m...
Apr 12, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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Webtoons
South Korean comics platforms dominate global top 10
Six manhwa platforms operated by South Korea’s tech juggernauts rank among the top 10 paid digital comics platforms worldwide. Manhwa is ...
Apr 12, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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Korean startups
Startups need to embrace ESG, industry insiders say
Environmental initiatives such as RE100 and high Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) standards are not just for conglomerates anymore, accor...
Apr 06, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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Mergers & Acquisitions
Kakao Piccoma acquires Japan’s cryptocurrency exchange SEBC
Kakao Corp., South Korea’s top mobile messenger app operator, has acquired a controlling stake in Sakura Exchange BitCoin (SEBC), a Japanese c...
Apr 05, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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Venture capital
Venture capitalists in S.Korea enjoy record salaries in 2021
South Korea’s venture capitalists put record high investments into startups last year. Thanks to positive returns on investments, a number o...
Apr 04, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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Mergers & Acquisitions
Kakao hits snag in $815 mn SM Entertainment takeover plan
Kakao Entertainment Corp. has hit a snag in its talks to buy a controlling stake in SM Entertainment Co., according to those familiar with the neg...
Mar 28, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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Entertainment
Europe emerges as battleground for webtoon dominance
South Korea’s tech behemoths Naver Corp. and Kakao Corp. are intensifying competition over who will dominate the global webtoon market. ...
Mar 21, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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Tech, Media & Telecom
Billionaire Kakao chairman Brian Kim resigns
Kakao Corp. founder and chairman Brian Kim said on Monday that he will step down from the tech giant’s board of directors, following a series ...
Mar 14, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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Executive reshuffles
Billionaire Kakao chairman Brian Kim resigns
Kakao Corp. founder and chairman Brian Kim said on Monday that he will step down from the board of directors, following a series of scandals that ro...
Mar 14, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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Mergers & Acquisitions
Kakao closes in on $800 mn deal to buy SM Entertainment stake
Kakao Entertainment Corp., a unit of South Korea's top mobile messenger app, is in the final stages of talks to buy a controlling stake in SM Entert...
Mar 11, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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