Korean Startup Summit returns to NYC

Korean president Park Geun-hye’s support of the Korean startup ecosystem through ‘Creative Economy Initiatives’ has turned Seoul into a thriving hotbed for innovation and startup success. Increasingly, promising Korean startups look beyond their home market and complete prestigious accelerator programs in the USA, such as Y Combinator and the ERA in NYC, in the attempt to conquer an even bigger American market. In preparation of our World Innovation Tour Asia in November, where Seoul will take center stage during our second stopover, we are excited to see how the Korean Startup Summit continues to build momentum in NYC.To emphasize the importance the government places on the startup scene as well as its ties to New York, the  Minister of SMBA (Small and Medium Business Administration) Mr. Young Sup Joo himself opened the 3rd Korean Startup Summit earlier this month in New York City. Over 400 people attended the event at Microsoft’s HQ on Times Square, where more than 20 startups showcased there innovative solutions. 15 companies flew from Korea leveraging the event to make valuable connections with local experts and investors. A startup competition is tradition at the Korean Startup Summit and this year Speclipse was crowned winner  followed by DoubleMe.Speclipse developed a diagnostic module which can detect early-stage skin cancer without any additional equipment but a small module, attached to pre-existing cosmetic lasers already used in clinics.DoubleMe set out to revolutionize AR/VR by completely automating the 3D content generation process at a fraction of the current cost ($200k per 3D character)The quality of startups on the day and diversity of industries was truly impressive as referred to by some of the VC’s spoke on the day. One of which, Patrick Chun, Founder and Managing Partner at VC firm Juxtapose gave an interesting keynote on why startups should exist, value creation in a world of hype and their approach to working with startups. Joseph Juhn from Kotra, organizer of the Korean Startup Summit and partner of WIT Asia commented that he found the talk both intellectually stimulating and pragmatic at the same time.In a world with a slowing market for VC funding, we are going to see a greater emphasis placed on the right team and true value creation as opposed to The next ‘Uber for …..’ In this regard, Korean startups hold an advantage; “In terms of what we have in the U.S., [technology in Korea] is five, maybe ten years ahead,” said Grace Kim, vice president of the nonprofit Korean Startups & Entrepreneurs.