korea
Twitch, the popular video streaming service, plans to shut down its business in South Korea on February 27 after finding that operating in one of the world’s largest esports markets…
Korea Blockchain Week focused on web3 gaming, institutional involvement, investors, regulation…and more
Welcome back to Chain Reaction. To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important crypto stories delivered to your inbox every Thursday at 12…
South Korean messaging giant Kakao confirmed today it will remove an external payment option after Google blocked the South Korean company behind KakaoTalk from issuing updates. Kakao continued using an…
Artificial intelligence-powered voice and video technologies have been gaining steady popularity in recent years. A Korean startup called Neosapience has developed a synthetic voice and video platform, Typecast, that lets…
Automotive simulation platform Morai secures $20.8M Series B to expand its global footprint
Morai, which provides autonomous vehicle developers with automotive simulation tools to verify the safety and reliability of self-driving systems, announced today it has raised $20.8 million (25 billion KRW) in…
With startups getting into nuclear technology, it’s no surprise to see more fundraising happening. Now, Kyoto Fusioneering, a fusion energy startup based out of Japan but increasingly expanding abroad, has…
Zigbang, a South Korean proptech startup that provides real estate transactions service, announced on Thursday that it will acquire Samsung SDS’ home internet of things (IoT) unit to make a foray…
Just half a year after its last Series F round announcement, Korean online grocery startup Kurly has closed $210 million in a pre-IPO round from single backer Anchor Equity Partners, a Hong…
Primer Sazze Partners plans to close $127M second fund aimed at South Korean entrepreneurs in 2022
Primer Sazze Partners, a San Jose-based venture capital firm, plans to set up its second fund at $127 million (150 billion won), aiming in the first half of 2022 to…
UK names John Edwards as its choice for next data protection chief as gov’t eyes watering down privacy standards
The U.K. government has named the person it wants to take over as its chief data protection watchdog, with sitting commissioner Elizabeth Denham overdue to vacate the post: The Department…
As Apple and Google continue to face increasing scrutiny over the rules they set for how third-party apps in their app stores charge for services, a significant development in that…
Dating juggernaut Match buys Seoul-based Hyperconnect for $1.73B, its biggest acquisition ever
In a large win for the Korean startup ecosystem, dating powerhouse Match Group announced this afternoon that it would buy social networking company Hyperconnect for a combined cash and stock…
The South Korean government has made no secret of its ambition to be a key player in the global artificial intelligence industry, including making the semiconductors powering AI functionalities. This…
Seoul and South Korea may well be the secret startup hub that (still) no one talks about. While often dwarfed by the scale and scope of the Chinese startup market…
Pavegen, a UK startup which harvests energy from people’s footsteps and also tracks that data, has raised £2.6m on its crowdfunding push having doubled its initial £950k target. The campaign…
Telegram, the most hyped ICO in the history of ICOs, is finally making its tokens available to retail investors through a limited listing that will precede a full sale later…
Kurly, a grocery e-commerce startup in Korea, closes upsized $113M Series D round
Kurly, a startup that operates a grocery delivery service in Korea, said today that it has closed an upsized Series D round that reached a total of $113 million. The…
Tencent replaces hit mobile game PUBG with a Chinese government-friendly alternative
China’s new rules on video games, introduced last month, are having an effect on the country’s gamers. Today, Tencent replaced hugely popular battle royale shooter game PUBG with a more…
Cashfree, an India-based startup that specializes in making corporate banking services more accessible and easier to use, has closed a $5.5 million Series A round. The deal is led by…
Blackpink, one of the highest-profile Korean pop groups, is breaking YouTube records with its latest video. A Google spokesperson confirmed to TechCrunch that “Kill This Love” is the fastest music…
Korean e-commerce unicorn Coupang hires Walmart’s former global chief compliance officer
Coupang, the unicorn that is defining e-commerce in Korea, announced today that it has hired Jay Jorgensen, Walmart’s former global chief ethics and compliance officer, to serve as its general…
The planned Robot Science Museum in Seoul will have a humdinger of a first exhibition: its own robotic construction. It’s very much a publicity stunt, though a fun one —…
Wattpad’s ambitions to grow beyond a storytelling community for young adults took another leap forward today with the announcement of a new partnership that will help expand its reach in…
Global investor SparkLabs is adding another business line after it announced a new consultancy division that’s aimed at working with Fortune 500 companies and other global corporates keen to deepen their…
Featured Article
Foxconn pulls back on its $10 billion factory commitment
Well that didn’t last long. In 2017, Foxconn announced the largest investment of a foreign company in the United States when it selected Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin for a new manufacturing facility. Buttressed by huge economic development grants from Wisconsin, an endorsement from President Trump, and Foxconn CEO Terry Gou’s vision…
Featured Article
Payment service Toss becomes Korea’s newest unicorn after raising $80M
South Korea has its fourth unicorn startup after Viva Republica, the company beyond popular payment app Toss, announced it has raised an $80 million round at a valuation of $1.2 billion. This new round is led by U.S. firms Kleiner Perkins and Ribbit Capital, both of which cut their first checks…
Messaging app firm Line has given up majority control of its Line Games business after it raised outside financing to expand its collection of titles and go after global opportunities.…
One of the longest-standing crypto exchanges has new owners after Europe-based Bitstamp was sold to South Korea’s Nexon, marking the gaming firm’s second such acquisition. The acquirer is NXMH, a Belgium-based…
Line is a pretty busy company. Beyond a messaging app that claims more than 160 million users, the company operates services like music streaming, manga, food delivery, games and it…
Messaging company Line is continuing to burrow deep into the crypto space after it announced the launch of a $10 million investment fund. The fund will be operated by Line’s…
