DEMO DAY | 3 KOREAN STARTUPS LAUNCHING AND MAKING MOVES INTO THE GLOBAL MARKET
STARTUP SPOTLIGHT
Ever heard of Pangyo Techno Valley? Pangyo Techno Valley is known as the Silicon Valley of Korea. There are startups and small-medium enterprises (SMEs) from overseas trying to take their business into the Korean and Asian markets, while there are Korean startups and SMEs trying to take their business into the U.S. and global markets. Pangyo Techno Valley is one of the many places for startups and SMEs to expand their business in Korea and overseas. One way companies can expand their business is through accelerator programs.
A Demo Day was held and hosted by the Korean Innovative Center Silicon Valley Soaring 2 Accelerator Program by AlchemistX in San Francisco, California. There was a total of 13 Korean startups pitching and participating at the end-program event. Demo Day is an in-person event, where startups part of the accelerator program pitched their innovative tech solutions to a live audience made up of potential investors, entrepreneurs, mentors, and peers.
WHAT IS A KOREAN INNOVATION CENTER?
Korean Innovation Centers were built by the Korean government with the vision of enhancing Korean entrepreneurship and enterprise development by providing comprehensive acceleration programs to Korean startups, as well as small and medium-sized enterprises. The Korean Innovation Centers are located in Silicon Valley, Washington D.C., Berlin, and Beijing.
WHAT IS KICSV & WHAT DO THEY DO?
The Korean Innovation Center at Silicon Valley (KICSV) was established in 2014, in the San Francisco Bay Area. KICSV has supported a sustainable environment for the Silicon Valley community through job creation and capital generation in the advanced technology industry sectors. So far, KICSV has been supporting hundreds of Korean startups and SMEs for coaching, consulting, and deal sourcing so that they could enter into the U.S. market and gain investment opportunities.
Regarding the acceleration programs, KIC SV has 3 stages for the KIC Express Program – Soaring 1, Soaring 2, and Beyond Soaring. Soaring 2 is a more intense acceleration program, which focuses on business localization, marketing, and initial sales. This is through 1:1 intensive mentoring sessions with experts, customer discovery, product launch, and marketing/business development.
KOREAN SPEAKING LANGUAGE APP: TEUIDA
Video Courtesy: TEUIDA.
Having trouble finding a good resource or tool to learn the Korean language? We at EVERLAST KOREA recommend checking out Teuida - a Korean language mobile app that is targeted for foreign users. Since its launch in June 2020, more than 1.8 million users have been learning Korean through Teuida. This mobile app is unique in the sense that it focuses on teaching students how to speak Korean with the goal of pronouncing words correctly, understanding the grammar, and knowing the context of a conversation.
The CEO of Teuida, Jang Ji Woong (장지웅) mentioned the gap between tutors/teachers not providing students feedback on how to pronounce words correctly, and making them feel more comfortable speaking Korean through live interactions. Because of this gap, Teuida created a solution for this issue by creating an app with A.I. technology, and a simulation of conversations that allows users to analyze their pronunciation of words. Ji even mentioned that they are in the process of putting together content with K-Pop artists! Stay tuned to find out which K-Pop artists collaborate with Teuida!
Choose from the concepts of learning how to introduce oneself to the concept of learning how to find one's seoul-mate - these are just a couple of the amazing concepts that are within these simulations. This app has a free and premium plan. The free plan includes pronunciation analysis, limited access to content, and will have ads played throughout the course of the simulations. The premium plan includes pronunciation analysis, unlimited access to all content, an ad-free experience, playback of one's own voice, and access to a private group that includes pronunciation coaching, extra lessons, Q&A, etc. For more information, please visit the link down below.
ENGLISH LISTENING & SPEAKING APP: REDKIWI
Video Courtesy: RedKiwi.
Having trouble finding a good resource or tool to learn the English language? Check out RedKiwi - an English language mobile app that focuses on listening and speaking skills through the help of YouTube videos and word mapping. As RedKiwi plans to expand on a global scale, this app is currently helping users in Korea, Japan, and Taiwan learn the English language in a fun and exciting way!
The CEO and Co-Founder of HayanMind, Oh Jeungmin, (오정민) who also goes by the name Jay, stated that HayanMind is the company behind the development of the RedKiwi app. As Jay explained the uniqueness of RedKiwi compared to other English language apps, he mentioned,
“...the system recognizes your listening skills and adapts to your level. You can communicate with native speakers that are certified teachers too.”
Whether it’s learning English through a scene from Harry Potter or from a TED Talk video, the RedKiwi Team selects interesting videos everyday for users to learn English. Having users choose videos they like to watch from YouTube makes learning the English language more motivating and entertaining!
This app provides holistic videos, learning exercises, and even a Q&A section that helps students understand context, culture, and the grammar of the English language.
IT SERVICE & CONSULTING: DTONIC CORPORATION
Video Courtesy: Dtonic Corporation.
Dtonic Corporation was founded in 2014, and spun off from Hyundai Motor Company. Dtonic specializes in treating spatio-temporal (space and time) big data, and providing data analytics and data engineering services for specialized Industry 4.0 industries. One of their biggest products is the Geo-Hiker - a spatio-temporal big data engineering platform, which allows cost-effective, high-speed, easy big data aggregation, storing, processing, and analysis of large spatio-temporal big data sets across computer clusters. This product has powered a few other products created by Dtonic as well, including the power to create the K-EISS. The Epidemiological Investigation Support System (EISS) was used by the Korean government to respond quickly to the spread of COVID-19 infectious disease. Thanks to K-EISS, Korea has been able to maintain relatively normal everyday life and avoid lockdowns.
Noora Lee, the Global Business Manager for Dtonic Corporation, explained the reasons for taking part in the KIC SV Soaring 2 Accelerator Program,
"The K-EISS was a great use case to show how much and how good our technology can be for humankind...through this program, we wanted to see how this global model and our big data engine technology could be utilized within the U.S."
Based off the success of the K-EISS used in South Korea during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Global-EISS,
“...utilizes the Geo-Hiker’s technology and Epidemiological Investigation Support System (EISS), which enables epidemic investigation in cities and countries that lack a disease control system. By providing automated epidemic investigation results and intelligent statistics, EISS does not require expert epidemiological investigators, and therefore minimizes the cost of an epidemic investigation.” - Dtonic Corporation.
Dtonic Corporation is doing amazing research, development, and execution of creating products that can help with everyday life.
INTERESTED IN KICSV UPCOMING PROGRAMS?
The KIC SV is currently recruiting companies to apply for the KIC SV TRT Program. The Dong Program operates a localization program centered around technology and business mentoring.
Applications are accepted from 07.18.2022 - 8.14.2022 (21:00 KST). The program period is from 09.19.2022 - 11.11.2022 (8 weeks). The program location is 4 weeks online and 4 weeks in Seattle, Washington. For details on how to apply, please review the KIC SV post (KIC SV TRT Program).
For inquiries, please email Manager Yoo Jin Jung (info@kicsv.org).
CREDITS
A big thank you to Son Kim and the Korean Innovation Center Silicon Valley for allowing EVERLAST KOREA to cover the 2022 KIC Express Soaring 2 Program Demo Day event. The Korean Innovation Center at Silicon Valley (KIC SV) was established in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2014. KIC SV has been helping hundreds of Korean startups and SMEs for coaching, consulting, deal sourcing for US market access, and gaining investment opportunities.
SOURCES
All photos and videos are credited to KIC SV, Teuida, RedKiwi, and Dtonic Corporation.
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