Goldman Sachs zeros in on midmarket, ESG infrastructure deals

Goldman Sachs Asset Management focuses on middle-market, value-add strategy for infrastructure deals, targeting the sectors undergoing a digital tra...

National health insurance to cover dental startup AIOBIO’s QLF device

AIOBIO’s dental diagnostic devices will be covered by South Korea’s national health insurance from June 1. AIOBIO is the country’s...

Samsung, Bayer join $90 mn investment in AI healthcare app Ada Health

Samsung Electronics Co. and Germany’s pharmaceutical giant Bayer AG have made a joint investment in the Berlin-based artificial intelligence (...

Hahn & Co. acquires controlling stake in Namyang Dairy Products

South Korea’s private equity (PE) firm Hahn & Co. has acquired a controlling 53% stake in Namyang Dairy Products, acquiring all shares own...

Long-term transformation in public markets: ValueAct

On May 12th ValueAct Partner, CEO, and Chief Investment Officer G. Mason Morfit appeared at the ASK Global Conference 2021 hosted by The Korea Econo...

Kakao Japan secures over $500 mn from Anchor Equity; valuation tops $7 bn

Kakao Corp.’s Japanese unit is set to secure 600 billion won ($530 million) from South Korea-based private equity firm Anchor Equity Partners....

Laundry service Wash Swat wraps up $16 mn Series B round

South Korea-based laundry service startup Wash Swat Inc. has secured 17.5 billion won ($16 million) in Series B round funding, bringing the company'...

Hyundai Motor pilots EV mobility service for pets

Hyundai Motor Group will pilot an urban mobility service for pets in Seoul, using a specially designed Ray EV model by Kia Corp. The group said on A...

S.Korea's public debt tops GDP for first time in 2020

South Korea's government debt surpassed its gross domestic product for the first time in 2020, with public debt reaching its highest level ever foll...

GS Galtex to partner with Kakao for mobility services

South Korea's GS Caltex Corp., aiming to become a logistics platform, will invest around 30 billion won ($26 million) in Kakao Mobility Corp. to str...

Kakao forays into pet taxi service; buys Pet Me Up

South Korea-based Kakao Mobility Corp., a subsidiary of mobile giant Kakao Corp., has acquired the country's leading pet taxi service, Pet Me Up, in...

Two thirds of Koreans use OTT services; YouTube favored

Two out of every three Koreans used over-the-top (OTT) media last year, with YouTube the favored platform from which to watch videos and other strea...

Serial entrepreneur builds gateway for cloud services

“You see all of these buildings? All of the companies in these buildings will become our clients."These were the words of Lee Han-joo, chief e...

SK Innovation buys 13% stake in China’s EV battery-swap station operator

SK Innovation Co. has signed a deal to acquire a 13% stake in a Chinese electric vehicle battery-swap station operator, as the South Korean company ...

Autonomous driving startup 42dot plans Level 4 self-driving in Seoul

42dot, a South Korea-based autonomous driving startup, plans to launch a Level 4 self-driving service in some areas of Seoul next year.The company s...

Hahn & Co finances $700 mn Korean Air deal with about $400 mn debt

Hahn & Co., a South Korean private equity firm, has completed the payment for the 790 billion won ($722 million) purchase of Korean Air Lines' i...

Hyundai Motor JV to launch robotaxi services in US by 2023

Hyundai Motor Group's autonomous driving joint venture Motional and US-based ride-hailing company Lyft have joined forces to offer robotaxi servic...

S. Korea's fiscal deficit tops $90 bn; public debt hits record high

South Korea's fiscal deficit in September has pushed the annual shortfall to over 100 trillion won ($89.6 billion) with public debt reaching an all-ti...

BTS may be allowed to delay military service to age 30

South Korea is likely to allow the seven members of boy band BTS to postpone their mandatory national military service by two years until the age of 3...

Kakao Pay set to be Korea's first mobile-payment fintech to go public

Kakao Pay Corp. is set to become South Korea’s first mobile-payment fintech company to go public as the company kicks off preparations for an in...

Foreign cloud service providers led by Amazon, MS play big in Korea

Global cloud service providers such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) are taking a greater share of South Korea’s serverless computing market, where ...

Hyundai Card issues green bonds worth $379 mn to finance eco-friendly services

Hyundai Card Co. has issued green bonds worth 450 billion won ($379 million) to fund its green car financing services, the credit card company said on...

Kakao Games makes a splash; raising over $13.5 bn in public subscription deposits

Kakao Games Corp. has raised over a staggering 16 trillion won ($13.5 billion) in deposits during the first day of its public subscription on Septembe...

Korean Air, Hahn & Company closer to finalizing $845 mn in-flight meal service deal

Korean Air Lines Co. and local private equity firm Hahn & Company may sign the share purchase agreement (SPA) for the flag carrier’s in-flig...

Local activist fund acquires additional 1.48% in Hanjin KAL through successful public tender

Activist fund Korea Corporate Governance Improvement (KCGI) and mid-sized builder Bando Engineering & Construction have succeeded in their pu...

[Upcoming IPO] Korean streaming service Watcha secures funding to join global players like Netflix

Watcha, a Korean streaming platform, is gearing up to tap into Japan and Southeast Asian markets following the completion of Series D funding worth 19...

[Upcoming IPO] PUBG creator to go public to finance IP expansion

Investors are paying close attention to the Korean game holding company Krafton as it is expected to be this year's hottest initial public offering. T...

Korean public employees’ pension to take more FX risk from alternatives

The Government Employees Pension Service (GEPS) plans to abandon its principle of hedging currency exposure from investing in overseas alternatives, a...

TPG buys Korean health supplement company for about $250 mn

Private equity firm TPG has acquired a small-sized South Korean dietary supplement manufacturer for around $250 million, in its first Korean buyout de...

App Doctor offers on-demand, hourly app service

For start-ups, applications are often a nuisance. Not only is it tough to develop one, but it's also a hassle to maintain and fix any issues. You're l...