Foreign ownership of Korean shares hits lowest level since 2010

Foreign investors’ holding rate in South Korea’s main bourse Kospi has plunged to the lowest level since 2010. The investors have dispos...

Startup accelerator Klim Ventures secures $4 mn in bridge capital

South Korea’s startup accelerator Klim Ventures announced Tuesday it has secured 5.5 billion won ($4 million) worth of bridge capital. ...

Korea reiterates reform plans to join MSCI developed markets

South Korea’s Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki reiterated the country will take reform measures such as the extension of the local currency's trad...

Online education startup Day 1 Co. completes $28 mn Series D funding

Education content provider Day 1 Company announced Thursday it has completed a Series D funding worth 35 billion won ($28 million.)A number of ventu...

Kakao Games invests $15 mn in Playable Worlds for global expansion

Kakao Games Corp., a game publishing unit of Korea’s web service giant Kakao Corp., has invested $15 million in US game studio Playable Worlds...

KDB resumes global venture IR event in Singapore

South Korea’s state-run Korea Development Bank (KDB) said on Thursday that KDB NextRound, the bank’s venture investment platform, will h...

NPS’ shareholder meeting vetoes cast pall on its profitability

National Pension Service (NPS) of South Korea, the world's third-largest pension fund with 948.7 trillion won ($768.9 billion) in assets under man...

Fortune-telling app receives $4 mn in Altos Ventures-led Series A funding

Chunmyung and Company, the operator of its namesake fortune-telling app, announced on Tuesday it has secured Series A funding worth five billion w...

Global pension funds veto more of Korean firms' agendas

Global pension funds are expanding their influence as key shareholders of major companies in South Korea. Some of the world’s largest pensio...

One Store refiles IPO application, changing peer group list

One Store Co., investment firm SK Square Co.'s homegrown app store, is gearing up for an initial public offering to be held in May. The local app st...

CJ, Samsung to launch $600 million e-commerce logistics fund

CJ Logistics and an affiliate of Samsung Life Insurance have joined forces to launch a real estate investment fund worth 740 billion won ($600 milli...

SK Ecoplant's pre-IPO enjoys attention from wealthy individuals

The pre-initial public offering of SK Ecoplant Co., formerly known as SK Engineering & Construction Co., is becoming a hot topic in private bank...

US and German startups funded by Mirae Asset join ranks of unicorns

Mirae Asset Venture Investment Co. is forecast to rake in more than 400 billion won ($325 million) for its investment in Moloco Inc. Mirae As...

Korea Post to hire two GPs for global infrastructure debt

  Korea Post, South Korea's state-run postal service agency, said on April 14 that its insurance arm will select two asset managers for a maxi...

Kakao Entertainment sets up content ecosystem with M&As

Kakao Entertainment Corp., a unit of South Korea’s top mobile messenger app operator, has established its own content ecosystem including crea...

Musinsa seeks to buy Japan-focused rival fashion platform

South Korea's top online fashion platform Musinsa is in the last stages of talks to acquire a domestic rival that caters primarily to Japanese shopp...

Naver, Kakao shares to fall further on sluggish outlook

Shares of Naver Corp. and Kakao Corp. are expected to decline further after South Korea’s top two platform giants already lost 20 trillion won...

Kakao's game unit behind Odin valued at $2.7 bn before IPO

Lionheart Studio Corp., the firm behind South Korea’s popular mobile game Odin, is preparing to go public as early as this year, with its ente...

Netmarble, NCSoft, Kakao, DoubleUGames on top publisher list

South Korea’s major tech companies such as Netmarble Corp., NCSoft Corp., Kakao Corp. and DoubleUGames were selected among the world’s m...

Creator tech startup Awake Corp. attracts over $892,000 in seed funding 

Awake Corp., a startup that operates platforms to assist online creators, recently attracted 1.1 billion won ($892,473) in seed capital. The total a...

South Korean comics platforms dominate global top 10

Six manhwa platforms operated by South Korea’s tech juggernauts rank among the top 10 paid digital comics platforms worldwide. Manhwa is ...

POSCO Chemical to raise $244 mn in green bonds

POSCO Chemical Co., South Korean steelmaker POSCO Group’s chemical and battery material unit, said on April 8 that it will issue green bonds w...

US hedge fund urges SK to focus on share buybacks

US hedge fund Dalton Investments LLC has urged SK Inc., the holding company of South Korea’s SK Group, to focus more on share buybacks and can...

Korea Post to tap two GPs for global PE secondaries

Korea Post, South Korea's state-run postal service agency, said on April 6 its savings arm will choose two asset managers for two closed-end comming...

Lessons learned from activist fund’s KAL exit

Activist fund Korea Corporate Governance Improvement Fund (KCGI) recently exited its investment in Hanjin KAL Co., the parent company of Korean Air ...

KTCU, CalSTRS to launch $505 mn JV for US warehouses

Korean Teachers’ Credit Union (KTCU), a retirement fund for South Korean teachers and employees, and The California State Teachers' Retireme...

Kakao Piccoma acquires Japan’s cryptocurrency exchange SEBC

Kakao Corp., South Korea’s top mobile messenger app operator, has acquired a controlling stake in Sakura Exchange BitCoin (SEBC), a Japanese c...

Mid-cap, small-cap outperform large-cap stocks in Q1 2022

South Korea’s mid-cap and small-cap shares outperformed large-cap stocks during the first quarter of 2022 as some glitzy initial public offe...

Activist fund wins over K-pop pioneer at SM Entertainment annual meeting

South Korea’s entertainment behemoth SM Entertainment Co. is poised to have a new outside auditor – a measure expected to bring a much-a...

Samsung’s Life Science Fund invests in US biotech Jaguar Gene Therapy

Samsung Group’s 150 billion won ($124 million) Life Science Fund launched last year has chosen a leading US gene therapy development company a...