The Latest from Kate Park
SoftBank-backed on-demand laundry startup Laundrygo picks up $37M Series C
Mom-and-pop stores and franchises — mostly offline — account for about 95% of the laundry market in South Korea, according to Laundrygo CEO Sung-woo Cho. But his South Korea–headquartered st
Elephantech wants to create circuit boards that are kinder to the environment
Printed circuit boards (PCB), which perform essential functions in electronic devices, including displays and sensors, need a lot of energy to create. Moreover, traditional PCB manufacturing processes
Korean VC Sopoong closes $8M fund for startups focused on environmental impact
Two years ago, South Korea unveiled a plan to reach carbon neutrality by 2050. Getting there will be another story. Although Korean manufacturers say they are trying to change their ways, the country&
SoftBank, NEC, Sony, Toyota + more team up for Rapidus, Japan’s bid for next-gen chip domination
As the tech war between the U.S. and China intensifies, Japan has spotted an opening to build a viable alternative for semiconductors — not least so that its own consumer electronics firms do no
Web3 messaging infrastructure Notifi raises $10M seed round co-led by Hashed, Race Capital
Notifi, a communication infrastructure platform for web3, said Tuesday it has raised $10 million in an oversubscribed seed funding co-led by previous backers Hashed and Race Capital. Other investors i
Line launches NFT marketplace on its platform DOSI
Japanese messaging app Line’s non-fungible token (NFT) unit LineNext said Tuesday that it has launched a consumer-to-consumer (C2C) marketplace on the NFT platform DOSI. The C2C trading service al
Meet Seoul-based accelerator SparkLabs’ 19th batch of startups
SparkLabs Korea, a Seoul-based seed to early-stage accelerator, held a demo Day on Thursday for its 19th cohort of companies. The latest demo day marks its tenth year after SparkLabs launched its acce
Samsung names Jay Y Lee executive chairman amid global economic downturn
Samsung Electronics has appointed Jay Y. Lee as the executive chairman to lead the world’s largest smartphone and memory chipmaker, two months after the heir received a presidential pardon that
Korean internet giant Naver eyes North America, Europe as it grows its C2C marketplace business
Naver is using its acquisition of Poshmark to expand in North America and Europe as it grows its consumer-to-consumer marketplace business.
Greener wants to help consumers and businesses be more sustainable
Many consumers and companies want to reduce their impact on the environment but may not know where to start or how to sustain the necessary changes. Tom Ferrier, the founder of Greener, an Australian
Kakao co-CEO resigns, company to invest over $300M to build data center after mass outage
Whon Namkoong, the co-chief executive of Kakao, has resigned in a remarkable demonstration of corporate accountability after a fire incident at an SK C&C data center in Pangyo, south of Seoul, cau
Shares of Korean internet giant Kakao slide after fire disrupts service
The stock price of South Korea’s internet giant Kakao tumbled on Monday after a fire at a data center that cut off power on Saturday, causing several service malfunctions. The blaze at the SK C&
AgriWebb’s software seeks to boost yields, lower environmental impacts for farmers and ranchers
AgriWebb is on a mission to help livestock producers feed the world efficiently, profitably and sustainably by providing its comprehensive, ground-truth database for beef production worldwide. The Aus
Fiserv, LG back Korea Credit Data as the SME-focused fintech startup raises another $24.7M
In South Korea, there are about 7.3 million small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) — defined as firms with less than 250 employees. Their workforces combined make up 83.1% of all corporation
SoftBank Vision Fund is reportedly laying off 30% of its workforce, or at least 150 employees
The Vision Fund, a venture capital arm of SoftBank, has launched a sweeping layoff process, cutting at least 30% of its workforce globally, or approximately 150 of the 500 employees, according to a re
South Korean prosecutors want to freeze Do Kwon’s bitcoin assets
Luna Foundation Guard (LFG), a Bitcoin reserve co-founded by Do Kwon as a confidence backstop to protect the Terra ecosystem, refuted claims that it had transferred digital tokens to other crypto exch
AmazeVR wants to scale its virtual concert platform with $17M funding
AmazeVR, a Los Angeles-based virtual concert platform, said Tuesday it has raised a $17 million funding round to create immersive music experiences through virtual reality (VR) concerts. Like other in
Interpol issues red notice for Terra founder Do Kwon
Interpol has issued a red notice for Do Kwon, requesting law enforcement agencies worldwide search for and arrest the Terraform Labs founder whose blockchain startup collapsed earlier this year. The c
Cloud kitchen startup CloudEats raises more capital to ramp up Southeast Asian expansion
A cloud kitchen — also known as a ghost kitchen or a shared kitchen — offers restaurant owners and food entrepreneurs a commercial kitchen space at a reduced cost for food delivery and takeout
South Korea finds more suspicious crypto-linked foreign exchange transactions
South Korea’s Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) said on Thursday that it had found additional unusual foreign exchange transactions of $680 million, which brings the total amount of “abnorm