Overview of SparkLabs Group (www.sparklabsgroup.com), a network of startup accelerators and venture capital funds across the globe. SparkLabs Global Ventures, a leading seed stage fund; SparkLabs Ventures, a localized early-stage fund (Series A & B) in South Korea; SparkChain Capital, early-stage investments in blockchain related startups.
SparkLabs accelerator network consists of SparkLabs Korea (Seoul), SparkLabs Beijing, SparkLabs IoT & Smart Cities (Songdo, South Korea), SparkLabs Taipei, SparkLabs Cyber + Blockchain (D.C., SparkLabs Energy (Oman), and Ping An Cloud Accelerator Powered by SparkLabs.
Our goal is to build each startup investment vehicle to be independently successful while still leveraging the synergies across each team, network and portfolio of companies.
3. 1
A Network of Venture Capital and
Accelerator Funds
Founded in 2013, SparkLabs Group (www.sparklabsgroup.com) comprises of SparkLabs
Accelerator, Asia’s premier accelerator network, with operations in South Korea (1st
launched in 2012), China, Beijing, Hong Kong, Sydney and Taiwan; SparkLabs Global
Ventures, a global seed-stage fund; SparkLabs Capital, a late stage investment vehicle;
SparkLabs Ventures, an early-stage fund for South Korea and SE Asia; and SparkChain,
our new blockchain focused early-stage fund. Our team previously has led investments
in Siri (sold to Apple), DeepMind (sold to Google for over $500M), Ping An Good
Doctor ($7.45 billion IPO), Spotify (board member), Studio Ex (co-founded, sold to
Disney), Hostway (co-founded, sold to a PE fund) and others.
We have invested in over 200 companies across all of our entities and across 6
continents. Some of our companies are Andela closed their $40 million Series C in 2017,
Lyft closed $1 billion from Alphabet’s CapitalG at a $11 billion valuation in 2017,
Deserve’s (formerly Selfscore) $17M Series C led by Sallie Mae, 88Rising’s $5M Series A
led by WPP along with Horizons & Blue Pool in 2017, and Memebox, which closed $126
million total in their Series C at the end of 2016.
4. 2
General technology accelerator
in partnership with CITIC
Guoan Academy
Australia based AgTech,
FoodTech, and Sustainability
accelerator in partnership with
New South Wales Government
A global $100 million blockchain-
focused fund. Series A & B and
primarily equity investments.
Partnered with Ping An Technology to
launch “Ping An Cloud Accelerator,
Powered by SparkLabs”. Based in
Shenzhen and Hong Kong
Korea’s #1 startup Accelerator.
96 portfolio companies. LPs include
Mirae Asset, Hartono family
(Indonesia), and Asan Nanum
Foundation (Hyundai family).
A Global Seed Stage Fund with
investments across the U.S. (50%),
Europe (25%) and Asia (25%). LPs
include UMC (Taiwan), Xavier
Niel, and Foundry Group.
$40 million Korea/SE Asia
Series A fund. LPs include
Korea Development Bank
(KDB) and SeAH Steel
IOT & Smart City Accelerator in
partnership with the City of
Songdo, Korea, which is a $35
billion smart city.
Our first accelerator in the U.S. and
based in Washington D.C. This will
focus on cybersecurity and blockchain
startups, and will launch 2Q 2019.
SELECT ENTITIES FROM SPARKLABS GROUP
5. SparkLabs Group
Leveraging Our
Investors &
Ecosystem
Partners
SOME OF OUR PARTNERS:
• New South Wales Government
• Ping An Insurance (largest insurance
company in China and globally)
• Mirae Asset (largest asset manager in
South Korea. Over $100 billion in
assets)
• CITIC (China’s state financial institution
with over $514 billion in assets)
• KDB, Korea Development Bank
3
6. SparkLabs Korea was the first accelerator launched by SparkLabs in December
2012. Since then over 95 startups have graduated from its accelerator program.
The program runs twice a year over a 4 month period and typically invests
$50,000 for up to 6% in a company.
Today SparkLabs Korea is considered the leading startup accelerator in South
Korea. Almost 80% of of our graduates receive follow-on funding, and the first
accelerator fund’s investment performance is up 1,300%.
4
SparkLabs Korea
8. SparkLabs Korea’s Demo Day is the largest Demo Day in the world which is held
twice a year since 2012. Over 2,300 people participated in the 11th Demo Day
(held on June 21, 2018). Demo Day highlights the end of each accelerator batch.
Typically over 400 venture capitalists and early-stage investors and over 100
corporate development professionals attend our demo day events.
The Largest Accelerator Demoday in the World
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SparkLabs Korea
9. 7
SparkLabs Korea Partnerships
Assisting Korea’s largest wireless carrier in
their innovation development.
“SK Telecom announced an partnership with
SparkLabs, a global accelerator, in Barcelona,
Spain at the Mobile World Congress.”
Yonhap News
“Universal’s Accelerator Engagement Network,
announced in October 2017, will work closely with
SparkLabs, which operates incubator programmes
in Seoul and Taipei, to develop music-related start-
ups.”
Yonhap News
10. SparkPlus is a leading co-working space in Seoul, South Korea with 7 locations.
SparkLabs Korea partnered with Aju Hotel group to launch a premier co-working
company in South Korea.
A Leading Co-working Space in Seoul
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SparkLabs Korea / SparkPlus
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Alumni
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Startups
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11. 9
SparkLabs Global Ventures
Our global seed-stage venture capital fund
USA
South(Korea
United(Kingdom
NigeriaPeru
Singapore Israel Sweden
Launched in December 2013. SparkLabs Global has invested in over 70 companies
across 6 continents. Geographic distribution is approximately 50% in North
America, 25% Europe and 25% Asia.
IrelandTaiwan Australia
12. 10
SparkLabs Global Ventures
Some of Our Co-Investors
For a first-time venture capital fund, SparkLabs Global has uniquely invested with
many of the top tier early-stage investors in the world.
13. 17
SparkLabs Ventures
Our early-stage fund for South Korea and SE Asia
Launched in August 2017. SparkLabs Ventures is focused on Series A and B rounds
with a majority focused on South Korean startups, but has a minority allocation for SE
Asian startups. This fund is led by Brian Kang (former MD of Korea Venture Fund,
former CEO of Gravity / NASDAQ: GRVY) and Chris Koh (Co-founder of Coupang).
BrewGuru
Kombucha manufacturing
company in Korea. SparkLabs
Ventures invested in their
seed round along with
FuturePlay.
Investments(include:
Tiki
A leading e-commerce
company in Vietnam.
SparkLabs Ventures
invested in their Series C
along with JD.com, STIC
Investment and others.
Logispot
Innotive logistics company in
South Korea. SparkLabs
Ventures invested in their
Series A along with Kakao
Ventures
14. 17
SparkChain Capital
Our early-stage fund focused on blockchain
related startups
Newly launched early-stage fund led by Joyce Kim, Co-founder of Stellar (5th largest
cryptocurrency/protocol). SparkChain will invest globally at the Series A and B
rounds.
15. SparkLabs Beijing launched in April 2017 in partnership with CITIC Guoan
Academy. Guoan Academy is a subsidiary of CITIC Guoan Group, which is the
largest industrial subsidiary of CITIC Group. CITIC Group is a leading state-run
financial institutional in China with over US$514 billion in assets under
management. Guoan Academy is the largest professional knowledge service
provider in China's startup ecosystem.
This is nationwide partnership where SparkLabs will seek to launch in Shanghai,
Chengdu, and Shenzhen afterwards.
11
Beijing
SparkLabs Beijing
16. SparkLabs Taipei is a general technology accelerator in Taipei, Taiwan. This
accelerator is helping startups in Taiwan go global and utilize SparkLabs’
global network.
Serving on its advisory board are Steve Chen (Co-founder of YouTube), Kevin
Chou (Co-founder of Kabam), Charles Huang (Co-founder of Red Octane /
Guitar Hero), and Kai Huang (Co-founder of Red Octane / Guitar Hero).
12
SparkLabs Taipei
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17. SparkLabs partnered with Ping An Insurance for a new fintech accelerator. Ping
An Group is a $219 billion market cap company with $121 billion in revenues, and
the largest insurance company in the world.
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SparkLabs FinTech
18. SparkLabs IoT & Smart City
6-month long Internet of Things program for seed to early-stage entrepreneurs
from anywhere across the globe. This program is located in Songdo, South Korea,
which is a $35 billion smart city built from the ground up. SparkLabs is the trusted
partner for this city of the future.
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• $35 billion smart city built from ground up.
• 2nd largest private real estate development in history
• 80,000 apartment units
• Currently over 80,000 residents
• 50 million square feet of office space and 10 million
square feet of retail space
• SparkLabs is the exclusive IoT test bed partner
SONGDO:
Smart City
of the Future
19. 15
SparkLabs Cultiv8
SparkLabs partnered local entrepreneurs and Australia’s Government of New
South Wales to launch a new global AgTech, FoodTech and Sustainability
accelerator.
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SparkLabs Energy
SparkLabs partnered with Petroleum Development Oman, which is the largest
exploration and production company in the Sultanate of Oman. It accounts for about
70% of the country's crude oil production and nearly all of its natural gas supply.
Startups will have access to PDO as a live test-bed for prototyping, whether it be in
the oil fields or with PDO assets. Our addition partner is Oman Oil Company, which is
involved in oil and gas exploration and production. SparkLabs Energy is launching its
first batch in December 2018.
21. SparkLabs Cyber + Blockchain accelerator is located in Washington D.C., which is
one of the world's top cybersecurity ecosystems. This new program will launch
2Q 2019.
This program will focus on two industry verticals: cybersecurity and blockchain.
Here are investments across the SparkLabs ecosystem in these two industries:
17
SparkLabs Cyber + Blockchain
BLOCKCHAIN/CRYPTO SECURITY
22. SparkLabs Foundry is our new innovation-as-a-service platform for
corporations across the globe, and will be launching in 2019. It will be based in
San Francisco, Singapore and Seoul. Fortune 1000 companies will have access to
our global network of innovators, entrepreneurs, and our growing portfolio of
over 200 startups. Our clients will stay ahead of the latest trends in quantum
computing, blockchain, AI, autonomous vehicles and other verticals.
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SparkLabs Foundry
Sid Anand
! Chief Data
Engineer at
PayPal
! Former VP of
Engineering at
Etsy
! Technical Lead in
Search & Data
Analytics at
Linkedin
Jon Pleasants
! CEO at Brava
! Former President
of Disney
Interactive
! Former CEO of
Ticketmaster
! Former COO of
Electronic Arts
Jun Yong Hyun
! SVP, Head of AI &
IOT Business
Development at
LG Uplus
! Former SVP, Head
of Convergence
Business at LG
Uplus
Jonathan Mariner
! Former CFO of
Major League Baseball
! Former CFO of the
Florida Marlins
Bruce Brown
! Former CTO of
Proctor & Gamble
! Board of Directors
at Nokia
! Board of Directors
of the Agency for
Science,
Technology, and
Research (ASTAR)
Scott Cowder
! CTO & VP of
Quantum
Computing at IBM
! Former VP of
Technical Strategy
within IBM
Corporate
Strategy
Sang Cha
! Board of
Directors at
Korea Telecom
! Creator of SAP
Hana
Advisory)Board