The Vault (US-KR Startup Accelerator) successfully concluded its 5-month KOEF GMEP US Funding Track 2023 startup acceleration program in December 2023, participated in by 10 promising Seed-Series A Korean startups from various verticals and sponsored by Korea Entrepreneurship Foundation (KoEF) & Korea Institute of Startup & Entrepreneurship Development (KISED).
This hybrid program was designed to prepare the startups on-the-ground in Korea before spending 6 weeks in Silicon Valley for a variety of local business development, product-market validation, mentorship & advisory, ecosystem networking, and investor pitching. 7 of the startups concluded the program having secured contracts for local distribution, LOIs from investors, MOUs for partnerships, or US advisors for further expansion support.
The program concluded with a global demo day participated in by a mix of 40 US & Korean VC investors including Meta Investment, Red Rock Capital, and Nanuhm Angels.
The Startups:
WAVE Lifestyle Technologies: Robot kitchen with multi-menu offerings to optimize F&B.
Fliption: GenAI face-customization for enterprise/brands to localize ad campaigns per region.
JLStandard: GenAI text, voice & video conversations with public figures, late family & versions of yourself.
Whatssub: AI-powered subscription management; anonymized data customer profiling for enterprise.
SAIB: FemTech intimate consmetic brand for safer, healthier & female-first sexual wellness.
NoriSpace: Pixel-level fraud detection for InsurTech industry.
Ratio: World’s first solar-powered cycling computer.
YellowScale: Art education through online museum tours.
Waiker: AI-based Personalized Global Market Data SaaS.
Cyberstar: Platform for AR creative agency matching, planning, and execution.
“The strong interest from investors and local partners is the culmination of this effort and represents a vote of confidence in Korean startups on a global stage where the distance between Seoul & Silicon Valley is being bridged every year” said Michael Jee, Head of The Vault Korea.
The success of this program will serve as a model for future Korea-US startup collaboration, underscoring San Francisco’s role as a global venture landing-pad into the US and the need for facilitators on both sides who can navigate the cultural and ecosystem gap to bring more effective collaboration.
About The Vault Korea
The Vault Korea bridges the Korean and Silicon Valley start-up ecosystems as a global platform for Korean business expansion into the US and provides a soft landing for companies entering the Korean market. The Vault’s Silicon Valley experience, global experts and advisors, and strategic network of business partners provides full-stack advisory and incubation services for internationally-minded start-ups and entrepreneurs from seed to growth.
