Introducing the Inaugural Class of Techstars Korea Accelerator
Aug 17, 2020
Right before COVID-19 escalated to an unprecedented global pandemic, I had hit the road hard to meet founders in cities across Korea and other countries including the US, Japan, Singapore, Taiwan and Australia. Over the course of my travels I met with hundreds of extraordinary founders, all in an effort to determine the 10 companies that would join us for the inaugural class of Techstars Korea. Now, six months later, I could not be any more excited to announce the 10 companies selected to join the 2020 Class of Techstars Korea Accelerator!
Techstars Korea aspires to invest in the best high-growth early-stage companies and founders without any bias toward specific verticals and industries. We aim to arm these companies with values only Korea can provide, and help them create disruption at a global scale. At Techstars, we also believe that the Techstars Korea Accelerator will nurture and advance Korea’s startup and venture ecosystem by bringing world-class entrepreneurs to Korea and helping to facilitate their exchange with the nation’s ecosystem. With such visions, the 2020 class of Techstars Korea will commence on August 31st, 2020 in Seoul, Korea and run for the next 13 weeks at its renovated, dedicated co-working office in the Gangnam area - one of the most vibrant areas in the country.
The 10 companies in the inaugural class of Techstars Korea join us from countries around the world including Korea, Australia, Canada, Singapore, the US and the UK. The companies are solving huge problems from how artificial intelligence could solve the inefficiencies and ineffectiveness in the current business world, to eliminating loneliness as a logistical problem, to promoting a more tasteful and colorful lifestyle with a cocktail bar in a can. These companies are the perfect fit to the aspirations of Techstars Korea and I can’t wait to witness, and share, their future success stories! Now, without further ado, please meet the 2020 Class of Techstars Korea Accelerator:
Bountifarm
Bountifarm is building an “AI-powered Chat Broker” marketplace that automates global B2B agri-trade and provide adequate financial instruments and risk management procedures
Datance
Instead of having separate solutions and licenses for data acquisition, data quality assurance, data integration and data governance, Datance provides a single integrated platform that can handle the entire pipeline from start to finish.
Foundry Six
Foundry Six merges video chat and gaming to replicate the fun that can only be felt with an in-person conversation. By leveraging augmented reality, our immersive games add a layer of connectivity that allows users to interact with the environment around them.
Gather
Social isolation is not a clinical problem; it’s a logistical problem where 85% of university students say coordinating group activities is the biggest barrier to spending time together. Gather makes the coordinating and scheduling easier based on the users’ preference and creates a new experience by providing dynamic feeds of activities.
Inspire Me World
Inspire Me World delivers diverse cultural world experiences, curated and packaged in subscription boxes and conveniently sent worldwide. Inspire Me World currently offers two services: Inspire Me Korea and Inspire Me Japan, and will add more cultures in the future onto their platform.
https://www.inspiremekorea.com/
Milky Way AI
Leveraging computer vision technology, Milky Way AI is building an innovative retail management system that collects shelf data effortlessly to save auditors (of both retails and brands) time and to empower them to optimize sales by ensuring their products are always available and well merchandised on physical store shelves.
SmartMind
SmartMind is building an AI-powered advertisement campaign distribution and management platform that can collect and analyze real-time campaign performances with a single index from multiple sources and optimize the distribution to maximize both the effectiveness and efficiency of digital marketing.
Trabble
Trabble offers a Guest Engagement Software as a Service (SaaS) platform to consolidate the fragmented travel industry globally. Trabble helps travel and hospitality businesses take their guests seamlessly from Pre-Trip, Check-In, In-Trip, Check-Out and Post-Trip; automating Enquiries, Reservations and Services.
Vervet
“Los Angeles Culture Meets California Agriculture”. That’s Vervet’s recipe. With no questionable flavors from labs, Vervet is the coolest craft cocktail bar you “can” carry around and share everywhere.
Y-hat AI
Y-hat AI is a team of ex-squadmates from R.O.K Cyber Operations Commands who want to change the way data is collected and exchanged. Y-hat is building an in-store visitor behavior data collection and distribution platform that captures all offline visitor behaviors using computer vision for retailers and brands that need real insights about their customers.