[Korean Startup Weekly News #119] Venture Market Rebounds

Headline

Korea’s Venture Market Hits Second-Highest Q1 on Record

Korea’s venture capital market rebounded strongly in Q1 2026, with new venture investment up 24.1% and new fund formation reaching a record KRW 4.4 trillion. ICT services, AI, and bio/healthcare led the recovery.

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LetinAR Raises $19.2M Pre-IPO Round to Scale AI Smart Glasses Optical Module Business Globally

South Korea’s LetinAR raised $19.2M in a pre-IPO round to scale AI smart glasses optical modules globally, with cumulative funding now topping $43.1M.

Featuring Targets Global Influencer Marketing Expansion with $10.6M Series B Round

Featuring raised $10.6M in Series B funding to scale its AI-powered influencer marketing platform used by more than 16,000 companies, with Japan expansion and M&A on the roadmap.

K-Beauty Brand Builder BiTELAB Raises $6.9M to Fuel Global Expansion and Product R&D

BiTELAB raised $6.9M in its first-ever funding round, backed by Atinum Investment and CJ Olive Young, to fuel global expansion and product R&D.

ALCHERA Raises $3.1M to Scale Physical AI Data Business

Korean AI firm ALCHERA raised $3.1M to build physical AI training data for autonomous vehicles, humanoids, and smart manufacturing.

NanumVitamin Raises Pre-Series A Bridge to Expand Digital Welfare Payment Network

Seoul-based welfare fintech startup NanumVitamin raised a pre-Series A bridge round from impact investor MYSC to expand its digital welfare payment network for underserved children.

Out of Set Raises Seed Funding to Build On-Device AI Infrastructure

On-device AI startup Out of Set raised seed funding from The Ventures to build ultra-lightweight, natively designed AI models for speech recognition and synthesis.

Clone Labs Secures Investment From Naver D2SF Backing for AI Acting Before You Ask

Clone Labs, a Korean AI startup building a User Model that predicts and acts on user intent, secured investment from Naver D2SF just three months into its incubation program.

Ecosystem News

NextRise 2026 to Bring OpenAI, Palantir, and NVIDIA Together in Seoul This June

NextRise 2026 will bring leading global AI and technology companies to Seoul from June 18–19, alongside 1,700 startups and 300 global firms.

Visit NextRise →

What We’re Seeing

• Korea’s venture market is returning to growth
• AI remains the strongest funding narrative
• Bio, beauty, and physical AI are emerging as export-driven categories
• Korean startups are increasingly global from day one