Seoul’s Technology & Startup Ecosystem

Nathan Millard, CEO G3 Partnersnathan@g3partners.asia / +82 (0)10 87237702

It wasn’t always

like this…

Gangnam in the 1950s

Gangnam in 2015

Seoul Metropolitan

Area

28M26M

Rest of Korea

GDP per capitaSmartphone Penetration

E-Commerce Market

Samsung & LG hold 60% m/swhile Apple 33% in device market

95 % m/s for Kakaotalk (of 73% smartphone penetration in S. Korea) & 4% for LINE in messenger service (as of Apr.2014)

68%Revenue from apps plus other digital

content comes from games

$5.27Per user per month in gaming

Per user per month across all digital content

$2.92

Korea’s Startup Ecosystem

Startup Co-working Spaces

Startup Accelerators & Incubators

Startup Events

• Around 1,000 Angels

• Seed Investment: KOISRA, DEV Korea, 500 Startups, The Ventures

• Series A: Capstone, CCVC, Venture Port, Formation 8, K Cube Ventures, Strong Ventures, Smilegate Investment

• Series B: Altos Ventures, CyberAgent Ventures, Softbank Ventures, Qualcomm Ventures, IMM Investment, NeoPlux, Stonebridge Capital, DSC Investment, SL Investment

Investors

Investment per stage – Asia

• $12B USD pledged for building “creative economy”

• Legitimizing entrepreneurship

• Innovation centers in major cities

• TIPS program (1:5 & 1:7 matching)

Park GeunHye & ‘The Creative Economy’

The Korean Unicorn Club

• IT infra that supports IT development

• Quality engineers, with strong work ethic

• Leaving corporations & appreciation of risk

• Global vision, bigger, better quality ideas

• Mentor networks and Angel investors

• Government support (money, PR, education, economic diversity)

• Exchange of students & ideas (Korea – West)

• Korean Americans returning to join startups

• Economic conditions that can support entrepreneurship

Why The Boom? Why Now?

The ‘Ajuma Factor’ preventing startup growth?

“Get a nice job in Samsung and a good wife, son.”

Signs of Success 4:33 Creative Labs

• Maturing platform situation (dominated by 1 – 2 players)

• Global competition (hardware, software, services)

• Opportunities in IoT & smart home

• Korean tech startups & SMEs more determined globally

• Korean consumers will lead global mobile trends

• Closer relationship with China

Everyone Loves a Trend…

Nathan Millard, CEO G3 Partnersnathan@G3Partners.asia : +82 (0)10 8723 7702