K Cube Ventures 2014 06 Media Kit (ENG)

K Cube Ventures 2014 06 Media Kit (ENG)
2014.06 MEDIA KIT F. facebook.com/kcubeventures T. @kcubeventures H. http://kcubeventures.co.kr
Portfolio Companies 26 Service 16 Game 10 Total Investment Amt.* $11M 2014 $3.4M 2013 $4.5M 2012 $3.8M * To date Content Investment Areas Commerce SNSCommunication Finance Health Search Beauty Game K Cube Venture Fund $11M Funds Kakao Venture Fund $30M Currency Rate: 1,000 KRW = 1 USD
Consumer/Mobile/Commerce Startup Game Startup
Service Start-Up
Consumer/Mobile/Commerce Frograms About Frograms’ 19 award-winning engineers and data scientists are recognized globally. • Tae Hoon Park, CEO: Attended KAIST (“Korea’s MIT”); developed new services at Korean game developer Nexon • Kyung Yoon Oh, CTO: KAIST graduate; International Olympiad in Informatics Gold Medal; ACM-ICPC World Finalist • Choong Jae Lee: Computer Engineering Ph.D from POSTECH; Korea Olympiad in Informatics Bronze Medal • Ha Neul Choi: POSTECH graduate; DEF CON CTF 3rd Place • Ji Hyung Park: KAIST graduate; Korea Olympiad in Informatics Silver Medal • Yong Joo Song: KAIST graduate; Korea Olympiad in Informatics Bronze Medal ‘Watcha!’ • Watcha! has 100 million stars in ratings; Korea’s #1 internet portal Naver’s movie section has 5 million stars in ratings • Frograms won the 2nd Place Prize in the Google K-Startup Competition 2012 for Watcha! • Pursuing global expansion and new content categories in personalized recommendation Watcha! Company Service
Consumer/Mobile/Commerce WishLink, Inc. About WishLink, Inc. was founded by two of Korea’s leading experts in online shopping. • Minuk Kim, CEO: Head of Sales Unit of NHN Shopping; recognized by peers as the “most networked person” in Korea’s online shopping industry • Cheonju Seo, CTO: Team leader of the mobile platform development for Korea’s #3 shopping site, 11street Less than 1 year since its service launch, monthly revenue reached nearly $1 million. ‘KakaoStyle’ ‘KakaoStyle’ functions as a mobile fashion ad platform to retailers and an information service on trends to fashion- forward consumers. • 100+ top class Korean retailers such as StyleNanda and Naning9 are registered on KakaoStyle • Available to Kakao’s 35 million users and as an app • Currently being launched in China KakaoStyle Company Service
Consumer/Mobile/Commerce Mverse About The Mverse team: • Shi Hyun Joo, CEO: KAIST graduate; Consultant at Bain & Company; Co-Founder of Silicon Valley startup ‘StyleSays’ • Tae Eun Kim, Executive: KAIST graduate; Winner of the Red Dot Award: Design Concept ‘Surprise’ The ‘Surprise’ app aggregates the latest announcements about sales at major stores like Nike, Lacoste and Zara for easy viewing. Mverse plans to add location services to Surprise that will recognize when a user is nearby or has entered a retailer and automatically send coupons and new product info via mobile. Achieved 0.3+million Download just for 2 months Surprise Company Service
Consumer/Mobile/Commerce Greenmonster Greenmonster Greenmonster’s CEO Ji Soo Ha is a venture capitalist turned entrepreneur and his team has a record of developing several successful apps. ‘Flava’ ‘Flava’ is a multiplatform journaling service (life log) with a beautiful mobile UX that makes it easy and enjoyable to record life’s moments. • Available in 150 countries • 1.2 million users since its September 2012 launch • 65% of users are from overseas (top 3 countries for overseas usage are China, U.S. and Japan respectively) Flava Company Service More Info: Website [PCMag] The 100 Best Android Apps of 2013 [Fast Company] 5 FREE APPS TO GET YOU IN THE DOOR, KEEP YOUR LIFE ON TRACK, AND MUCH MORE Press: Availability: Global (150 countries) iTunes Google Play
Consumer/Mobile/Commerce Vingle About Vingle was founded by serial entrepreneurs Changseong Ho and Jiwon Moon, famous husband and wife entrepreneurs who successfully founded the Silicon Valley startup, Viki, which in 2013 was acquired by Rakuten. • Jiwon Moon, CEO: M.A. in Education from Harvard University • Changseong Ho, COO: M.B.A. from Stanford University ‘Vingle’ ‘Vingle,’ an interest-based community platform that allows people to connect via their shared interest, already has 2 million monthly visitors coming from over 105 nations, including the U.S., Japan, Indonesia, and Mexico. Vingle Company Service Availability: Global (105 countries) iTunes More Info: Website Google Play
Consumer/Mobile/Commerce Kids Note About Two long-time colleagues at Korea’s largest antivirus software firm, AhnLab, Inc., combined their technical & business expertise to found Kids Note. Both are second-time entrepreneurs. • Jang Wook Choi, CEO: Technology Team of AhnLab; Founder of Vault Micro Software • Joon Yong Kim, CEO: Security Division of AhnLab; Founder of The First Penguin The ‘Kids Note’ app, a smart notification service, is the first of its kind and a clear market leader in its category. ‘Kids Note’ Kids Note is a closed SNS service for real-time communication between parents and nursery schools. • 25% of all Korean nursery and preschools (12,000 out of 50,000) use Kids Note • The second-place app in this category has less than 10% of the number of downloads compared to Kids Note Kids Note Company Service
Consumer/Mobile/Commerce Dunamu About Dunamu Founder & CEO Chi Hyung Song is a nationally recognized top-tier engineer. He was designated to teach Korea’s most talented engineers as a Mentor in the Korea Software Maestro Program, a prestigious training system operated by South Korea’s Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy. Only 100 of the best software engineers are chosen annually to participate. Dunamu CSO Hyung Nyun Kim is the former CEO of Futurewiz, a mobile finance information and solution company based in Korea. • Chi Hyung Song, CEO: B.S. in Computer Science & M.A. in Economics from Seoul National University • Hyung Nyun Kim, CSO: CEO, Futurewiz Stocks Plus for Kakao ‘Stocks Plus for Kakao’ allows users to easily check their stock quotes in real-time through Kakao, Korea’s top mobile platform with 35 million users. It has a social feature through which users can see which stocks their friends are keeping track of. Dunamu seeks to offer a one-stop mobile service for conducting all stock-related activities. Recently achieved +0.1 million downloads for 2 months Stocks Plus for Kakao Company Service
Consumer/Mobile/Commerce WIV Labs About The WIV Labs team is made up of Korea’s definitive experts in search engines. Its programmers developed Korea’s #2 search engine, Daum, end-to-end from scratch. WIV Labs aims to become a leader in the social Q&A field by providing a service capable of collecting and analyzing the large-scale amounts of data produced by SNS. Social Q&A Service, ‘Qaster’ Right now, a huge scope of significant information is produced by users’ questions and answers on SNS, but it is difficult to search and find the specific information that you want. WIV Labs’ new service ‘Qaster’ solves this problem by collecting and analyzing data from SNS and extracting the meaningful information found in users’ questions and answers. The beta version of Qaster was launched at the end of March 2014. Qaster Company Service
Consumer/Mobile/Commerce Seedpaper About Seedpaper offers practical, mobile-based content that helps regular women enhance their lifestyle. Its newly launched content brand ‘Self Beauty’ offers easy-to-follow videos & guides featuring renowned makeup & hair experts. ‘Self Beauty’ Self Beauty’s content is available on Kakao’s ‘Plus Friend’ feature, which allows users to receive special content from artists, brands and publications. With content from prominent experts such as hair designer Cha Hong and makeup artist Jung Saem Mool, the response to Self Beauty has been positive. ‘Kakao Page’ is an online marketplace for digital content and Self Beauty’s ‘Kakao Page’ has also been popular with users. • Self Beauty became available in Plus Friend in July 2012 and gained 250,000 subscribers within 2 months • Current number of Plus Friend subscribers is 300,000 • 0.9 Million readers on Self Beauty’s Kakao Page Self Beauty Company Service
Consumer/Mobile/Commerce HealthWave About HealthWave creates animations that make it easy for patients and caretakers to understand complicated medical procedures such as breast cancer surgery by watching them on their smartphones. HealthWave’s CEO, Dr. Hee Doo Chung, M.D., was a general surgeon at Seoul National University Hospital. ‘HiChart’ In 2011, HealthWave launched the world’s first information prescription service called ‘HiChart.’ HiChart has hundreds of animations that explain how complicated medical procedures are performed as well as the risks & side effects. In the past, it may have taken an hour for a doctor to explain to a patient about a complex surgery with diagrams and printed materials. In addition to the time this required, there was often a gap between the understanding that the doctor wanted to convey and the patient’s actual understanding of the procedure. Now when a doctor prescribes a HiChart animation for the patient to watch on a smartphone, this not only helps the patient to fully understand the procedure, closing the gap in understanding, but it also saves time. HiChart Company Service • HealthWave has created 900 animations (with exclusive rights) and about 3,000 more subjects for animations exist • HiChart is expanding globally through open beta services in the U.S., Japan and Singapore
Consumer/Mobile/Commerce byBox About One of Korea’s most recognized icons in fashion design and an industry expert in digital content have teamed up to found byBox, the curation commerce service for fashion. • Se Woon Jurn, CEO: Producer at Cheil Worldwide Inc., where he was recognized for his successful execution of IPTV content services • Ho Sub Kang, Chief Curator: Professor of Fashion Design at Hongik University (Korea’s top arts school); Mentor on television program ‘Project Runway Korea’ byBox byBox is a curation commerce service for boxes of jewelry and accessories created by Korean designers and curated by major celebrities and experts such as renowned fashion stylists. Up-and-coming local designers collaborate with these influential figures to introduce their products on byBox’s platform. This enables customers to obtain unique fashion items that are not available anywhere else, at reasonable prices. • Scheduled to release several new boxes curated by top Korean celebrities of ‘Hallyu’ (the Korean Wave) in the first half of 2014 • Will expand into other lifestyle categories including living, food and children’s goods byBox
Consumer/Mobile/Commerce Vius Korea About Vius Korea is the creator of Mr. Koon, the curation commerce service that sells high-tech digital & design products from around the world to early adopter tech-lovers faster and at lower prices than any other online commerce site. The Mr. Koon team includes two Co-Founders of TicketMonster, the online ticketing platform, and the CFO of Reebonz, the online luxury goods retailer. Mr. Koon Mr. Koon scours the globe for colorful and distinctive IT, design and household items with high-tech features in categories ranging from IT, camping, leisure and household. Mr. Koon has established a unique market position in Korea by targeting male early tech adopters (+70% of customers are male). Mr. Koon’s reasonable prices, made possible by cutting out the middleman and streamlining the buying process, have led to significant customer growth. • Monthly revenue has reached nearly $1 million (average amount of each customer order is about $150 USD) • +60,000 registered users (250% increase since September 2013) • Its new distribution system delivers orders within 7 days (domestically) Mr. Koon
Consumer/Mobile/Commerce Qurion About Qurion creates Semantic Vertical Search Engine focused on Summarization and Personalization of User-Generated Content Problem Qurion tries to solve is as follows • Existing search services for User-Generated Services and Products Review Content still stuck at Search 1.0 technology that is based on basic information retrieval technologies such as string match and link analysis. • User has to read too many reviews to get useful information. • Wide variety of opinions expressed in the reviews makes it confusing and hard to remember. • Lacking next-generation search technology with semantics-based relevancy models and analysis, clustering, summarization, and personalization. Team members CEO, Syung Lee has 20+ years work experience in Silicon Valley. (joined Google at pre-IPO stage and held various positions including technical account manager for ecommerce sites like TripAdvisor, Shopping.com, Nextag.) CTO, Woojoo Lee has vast experience regarding Semantics Search at Naver (#1 Search Engine at Korea) Senior Engineer, Sam Fung was Senior Web Solutions and Applications Engineer at Google. Was at Google for 9+ years Under Development
Consumer/Mobile/Commerce cldi Under Development About Cldi is a startup that uses image recognition technology and machine learning to make visual browsing more easier for everyone. The company aims to improve beyond current existing technologies and make information searching from images more efficient. Anthony S. Baek, the company's CEO, earned his PhD at KAIST and has both hardware experience from designing multimedia processors and software experience from Samsung Electronics, Gretech Jungin Lee, the company's CTO, was involved in large-scaled image recognition researches at KAIST, developed mobile games such as Mini Game Paradise 5 and Homerun Battle 3D at Com2uS, and participated in improving handwriting recognition algorithms at ETRI. Focusing on Image Recognition Technology Cldi is a technology-based venture that concentrates in image recognition technology. By using neural network models for the recognition process, Cldi claims to have the highest accuracy in recognizing images.
Game Start-Up
Game Fincon About The heads of each department, including development, animation and strategy, that created the hit online MMORPG ‘C9’ (which took the Grand Prize at the 2009 Korea Game Awards) formed Fincon together to make mobile RPGs. • Choong Kil Yoo: Producer & Head of Strategy for C9 • Jung Hyun Kim: Head of Client Services for C9 • Jay Young Kim: Head of Servers for C9 • Sung Hwan Kim: Head of Characters for C9 • Ki Young Nam: Head of New Business at Webzen Games • Fincon grew from 11 to 40 employees • Tens of millions of dollars in revenue ‘Hello Hero’ Fincon’s first mobile RPG ‘Hello Hero’ was once ranked the #1 free game in the iTunes App Store and #3 popular app in Google Play. It also rose to the #5 game in the global Google Play ranking at one point. • 280+ diverse collectible characters • Available in about 150 countries including the U.S., U.K. and Brazil • Once ranked as the #1 paid app in China Hello Hero Company Service Availability: Global (150 countries) iTunes Google Play
Game Neptune About Neptune’s CEO Wook Jung built his team with several recognized leaders in Korea’s gaming industry. • Wook Jung, CEO: CEO of NHN Entertainment • Sang Hoon Kwon, CTO: CTO of NHN Japan • Han Sang Cho, COO: COO of NHN Entertainment Neptune released its first game ‘Nexon Pro Baseball Master’ in 2013 and will release its second RPG in April 2014. ‘Nexon Pro Baseball Master’ Nexon Pro Baseball Master 2013 is a baseball simulation game for smartphones. • 2.5 million downloads since launch Nexon Pro Baseball Master Company Service
Game Dryad About Dryad stands out among game startups for its strong team. • Young Seo, CEO: Producer at Daum Mobile Games • Jungdae Lee, Producer: Producer at Daum Mobile Games • Hongmo Kim, CTO: Engineer at NC Soft and Daum • Dohyung Ban, Art Director: M.F.A. in Computer Art from the School of Visual Art Dryad was founded in May 2012 with the aim of developing mobile RPGs to introduce a brand new genre of c ombined TCG/RPG. Dryad plans to develop a TCG that reflects Korean gamers’ pr eferences and is focused on creating one that’s unique from the TCGs popular in Japan. ‘Legions’ Dryad’s debut TCG, called ‘Legions,’ will be published by NHN Entertainment in April 2014. To Be Released Company Service
Game O’ol Blue About O’ol Blue was started by CEO Nam Suk Kim and the key developers who brought the award-winning MMORPG ‘C9’ to Korean gamers in 2009. O’ol Blue released ‘Mighty Quest,’ a game that combines the fun of RPG and puzzles to a character collection game. ‘Mighty Quest’ In December 2013, O’ol Blue released Mighty Quest, a fun m obile RPG that features diverse characters and has a wide ap peal to all types of gamers. More than 50,000 people reserved a copy before its release. What differentiates Mighty Quest from other character collection games is that players don’t have to throw away characters that they worked hard to raise simply because their ability levels are low. Any character in the game can be raised to achieve the highest ability level possible. Mighty Quest Company Service
Game Dubaki About Dubaki means ‘two wheels’ in Korean, which represents the founders’ philosophy that ‘performance’ and ‘the ability to work well with others’ are the two elements that are essential to a great team. Dubaki was founded by the team behind successes including the mobile 3D MMORPG ‘Dragon Mist’ and the large-scale mobile shooting game ‘Air Hunter,’ which won praise when WeMade Entertainment showcased it at the E3 Expo and the G-Star Global Game Exhibition. Dubaki plans to release a casual shooting game in April 2014. To Be Released Company Service
Game Valcon About The Valcon team is made up of six game developers who spent many years working together to develop MMORPG titles at Nexon and XL Games. • Woo Jun Jung, CEO: In charge of strategy & monetization at ArcheAge and Nexon Live Game • Hee Young Kim, Executive: Part Leader for Game Design at XL Games Valcon is set to release a new type of defense game that combines social feedback and an online game narrative in April 2014. To Be Released Company Service
Game Cherry Bugs About The Cherry Bugs team consists of six experienced developers who worked together at WeMade Entertainment, one of Korea’s top game companies, for many years and produced award-winning games. Chul Ho Jung, CEO • Section Chief of WeMade Entertainment’s graphics department, which had 120 graphic designers • His PC game ‘The Boss’ won the Grand Prize at the 2003 Korea Game Awards Hyun Jin Jang, Producer • Globally recognized animator • Won 4th Place at Dominance War, the international game art competition Min Soo Kang, a developer with over 10 years of experience in creating large-scale MMORPGs, and other top-rated developers round out the Cherry Bugs team. To Be Released Company Service
Game Red Sahara About Red Sahara was founded by key members who formerly worked together at Webzen Games, building a strong sense of teamwork and creating successful large-scale games over the course of 4 years. ‘Immortal Warrior’ Red Sahara launched a mobile strategy RPG game titled ‘Immortal Warrior’ in April 2014. The game became instant success - Immortal Warrior was once ranked the #8 top grossing game in the Kakao Game Platform and the #6 top grossing app in the Google Play Store. It is a remarkable feat considering that it released the game without the help of a publisher and little in the way of marketing. Korean gamers are giving Immortal Warrior high marks for capturing the fun, immersive experience of a traditional RPG in a mobile game. Players can collect and cultivate diverse 3-D characters and employ differentiated fighting strategies with 4- character groups. The growing popularity of Immortal Warrior has also begun attracting attention from game publishers in the neighboring Chinese market. Immortal Warrior
Game Howling Soft About Howling Soft was founded by key members who formerly worked together at Game High, building a strong sense of teamwork and creating successful #1 FPS Game in Korea called ‘Sudden Attack”. Howling Soft is currently recognized as the best FPS Game startup. Howling Soft is slated to launch a mobile FPS game titled ‘Sand Storm’ in June 2014. Sand Storm
Game CoCoon Games About CoCoon Games was founded by key members who formerly worked together at Paprika Lab, acquired by GREE • JeongWook Lee, CEO: former Paprika Lab COO • Kimun Song, CTO : Former Paprika Lab CTO, Lead Programmer at Nexon • SangYub Lee, CPO : Former Liveops Manager at Kabam. Paprika Lab Graphic Designer CoCoon Games is slated to launch a mobile strategy RPG (tribal wars) game titled ‘Songs of War’ in June 2014. Songs of War
K Cube Family CEO Day WE SHARE WHAT WE LEARN & GROW TOGETHER Family CEO Day is a monthly networking event for K Cube Ventures’ family companies. • Executives share advice & discuss opportunities for cooperation • Contributes to Korea’s startup ecosystem as a forum for knowledge sharing & networking K Cube family companies have access to an innovative online & mobile platform where they can: • Share their best practices and past experiences • Make more efficient and effective executive decisions through opinion sharing Knowledge Sharing Platform
HANDS-ON & PRACTICALASSISTANCE K Cube Ventures provides our family with diverse opportunities for business collaboration through our wide network of industry experts including investors, incubators, startups and media outlets. We also: • Provide advice for expansion in Asia and overseas networking • Assist with HR, PR and management issues such as tax, legal and accounting matters Business Development & Mgmt. Support K Cube Conferences K Cube Ventures regularly holds conferences to contribute to the Korean startup ecosystem. Other events include: • Shina Chung, Partner, gives one-on-one mentoring sessions to entrepreneurs on a monthly basis at Korea’s #1 co-working space for entrepreneurs, D.Camp • We offer numerous lectures at universities such as KAIST and Seoul National University as well as prominent
OUR VISION & FOUNDERS K Cube Ventures is an early stage venture capital firm founded in April 2012 with the vision of harnessing the power of startups to change our world. Brian Kim, the creator of Korea’s icon of innovation, Kakao, founded K Cube Ventures together with Jimmy Rim, known for his investments in internet, mobile and gaming startups including SundayToz, the maker of Anipang. K Cube Ventures believes that early stage startups not only need financial support, but also experienced mentors. To this end, K Cube Ventures assists startups in the areas of business development, networking, team building, strategy consulting, investment & financial affairs, HR & PR and management. Thus far, K Cube has invested in 20 companies and will continue to invest in early stage startups in categories such as data analysis technology, social and commerce. (Between $100 thousand to $1 million per startup on average.) In addition, K Cube is committed to sustaining the active networking and knowledge sharing that exist among our startups through our unique family culture and contributing to the development of Korea’s startup ecosystem. @profound Current: Chairman, K Cube Ventures Chairman, Kakao Previous: CEO, NHN Corporation Founder, Hangame B.S. and M.S. in Industrial Engineering from Seoul National University Brian Kim @jimmyrim Current: CEO, K Cube Ventures Previous: Principal, Softbank Ventures Consultant, Boston Consulting Group Strategy Manager, NHN Corporation B.S. in Industrial Engineering from KAIST Jimmy Rim Startup’s Best Friend – We Help Extraordinary Talents Take a Leap of Faith Founders
TEAM Investment Team • General Manager, Naver Business Platform • Manager of Strategy and Business Development, eBay Inc. • Consultant, Boston Consultant Group Shina Chung, Partner • Co-Founder & Executive, Idea Works (mobile service startup) • Associate, VirtualTek • Manager, SK Communication • Manager, CJ Corporation Jun Kim, Partner PR Team Admin Team Daisy Lee, Admin Team Lead • Assistant Manager, KTB Network • Assistant Manager, Solomon Bank • Admin Manager, UQI Partners • Admin Manager, Medici Investment • Main AE(Account Executive) for numerous IT Companies at Top PR Firm Jenny Lee, PR Team Lead Clare Cho, Admin Team Manager • Accounting, General Affairs manager at Investment Advisory firm and Venture Capital
FAQ K Cube Ventures invests in internet, mobile, game and tech startups. We believe that we can provide our best support to startups that are in our field of expertise. 1. Where do you invest? The seed stage to the growth stage. We also invest in startups that do not have products or services yet and those in the process of assembling their teams. 2. At which stage do you invest? Between $100 thousand and $1 million per startup on average. 3. How much do you invest? K Cube believes that people are the most important element of startup success. We look for entrepreneurs with a strong sense of mission and startups that act like ‘painkillers’ that solve life’s problems. 4. What are your investment criteria? We not only provide financial investment, but also give startups access to K Cube’s network and business insights. We give assistance for needs such as recruitment, entry into global markets, creating partnerships with large companies and public relations. 5. How do you support startups? K Cube Ventures takes a minority stake in the company without securities or guarantees. We invest with the goal of a venture exit through an IPO or M&A within 7-9 years. 6. What are your exit criteria? K Cube Ventures aims to become a startup’s best friend. We want to be the first people that a gifted entrepreneur or team will call when they consider doing a startup. We also want to help cultivate the Korean startup ecosystem through our active early stage investment and our ultimate goal is to assist startups that will create innovation on a global scale. 7. What are your operational goals?

Check these out next

K Cube Ventures 2014 06 Media Kit (ENG)

Recomendados

Más contenido relacionado

Presentaciones para ti(19)

Similar a K Cube Ventures 2014 06 Media Kit (ENG)(20)

Más de K Cube Ventures(20)

Último(20)

K Cube Ventures 2014 06 Media Kit (ENG)