The annual K-Pitch Competition presents one of the finest Korean startups every year to Silicon Valley. This year, 16 of the most competitive Korean Tech companies, in the Digital-Transformation field, are chosen through highly uncompromising preliminary rounds in Korea and are ready to rise and shine in Silicon Valley.
Manoj Fernando is currently the Founder & CEO of Thinktomi - a Silicon Valley School of Innovation. Thinktomi provides dynamic and experiential learning leveraging the latest entrepreneurship methodologies, innovation and digital business transformation programs with knowledge derived from game changing companies. Thinktomi has a rich network of Silicon Valley thought leaders that provide real-life skills and insights as they happen in the industry. Thinktomi programs are offered both in the US and Global markets. Over the past 5 years Manoj has worked with over 2500(+) students and 1000(+) startups around the world both teaching and mentoring these companies.
Venture investor with focus on early-stage startups based in San Francisco. Currently serve as Director of Okta Ventures overseeing startup investments in privacy, identity, and security. Before Okta I led Scrum Ventures US Investments with a portfolio of over 65 startups.
Kwangrog Kim is Managing Partner of Primer Sazze Partners and currently lives in Silicon Valley and works in Silicon Valley and Seoul. He co-founded Sazze, Inc. in 2005 and serves as CFO, overseeing finance and human resources, and supervising strategy, product management and online marketing on various company projects. He set up several eCommerce projects at Sazze, Inc., including DealsPlus.com, WhizWallet.com and Progrids. Kwangrog co-founded Sazze Partners in 2014. He focuses on transformative consumer tech companies. Prior to co-founding Sazze, Kwangrog studied Civil Engineering at University of California, Berkeley.
Michael Pachos is a Managing Director at Samsung Ventures. He joined Samsung 2008, first working out of the Seoul headquarters, and then transferring to the Menlo Park office in 2013. He focuses on Consumer, Display, and IT related investments. Prior to joining Samsung Ventures, Michael worked in the Samsung Group’s Global Strategy Group (GSG). GSG was established under the Chairman's Office to address strategic and operational issues at the CEO level of Group companies. Michael worked on projects involving M&A, convergence and digital media strategy, and channel strategy. Before joining Samsung Michael was a CPU architect at DEC, Compaq/HQ and Intel. Michael is also a Co-founder of Global Velocity; an enterprise security related Hardware Company.
Since founding Big Basin, he has raised three seed-stage funds and invested in more than 40 startups in Korea and the US in various sectors such as mobile application, e-commerce, enterprise software, digital content, education technology, and gaming. Phil serves on the board of many companies he backed, including Kong Studios, Cookat, ODK Media, Goodtime, Swingvy, and Classum.
I am presently a Venture Partner at 500 Startups and a CEO of a startup. Previously I was an executive for startups having founded or worked at eight companies with four exits and four companies still operating. I was CEO for the last two venture-funded start-ups. I also maintain a broad domain of expertise, having held leadership positions in products, marketing, and operations. Academic credentials include a BA, BS, MS, and MBA degree from Stanford, Wesleyan, and Santa Clara. I am a 500 startups Venture Partner, a mentor/advisor for Cardinal Ventures, Stanford iFarm, and Stanford's Treehacks program as well as an executive advisor for over 15 funded startups, and previously held the position of Executive in Residence at Quest Venture Partners.
TouchCare is a proactive wellbeing & cognitive-behavioral intervention solution for the elderly and remote-care population. Using patented ‘Touchtag’ technology, the system builds highly granular life-log data for each user. Behavioral anomalies are detected and a context-aware A.I. messaging system delivers appropriate habit-change interventions. TouchCare helps alleviate depressive disorders such as depression and loneliness through A.I. interactions, monitors behaviors that are precursors to health decline, and provides caregivers with real-time behavior and physical/mental activity insights.
We, DoAI is developing AI-powered early-stage cancer diagnostic solutions, especially focusing on the early stage of pancreatic cancer diagnosis. We aim to provide affordable and effective health care benefits for everyone by using Nano-Raman & AI technology. Our vision is “Be the leading AI-enabled medical solution provider and accelerator of predictive, preventive, personalized and particularized health practice for patients”
Dtonic spun off from Hyundai Motor Company in 2014 and has ever since helped clients, from Hyundai Motors, Korean governmental organizations, and even small niche start-ups, to treat their Spatio-temporal data more efficiently and enable real-time data analytics. Dtonic’s main product, Geo-Hiker, is a Spatio-temporal big data boosting engine that optimizes existing big data processes to treat data faster and more cost-efficiently on a large scale. Geo-Hiker’s key technology is based on distributed parallel based optimized big data aggregation, query processing for real-time and non-real-time aggregation, and high-speed computing, machine learning of Spatio-temporal big data.
Mirae CIT, Inc. has constantly been expanding the big data-based intelligent platform technology applications since 2014. By applying artificial intelligence (deep learning) technology to the field of ESG (Environment, Social, Governance) and smart manufacturing (smart factory), we have AI-powered ESG cloud solution, AI vision solution, Softsensor, SDMS (Scientific Data Management System), and MES (Manufacturing Execution System) for smart manufacturing.
Nuvilab is a food-tech startup that develops healthcare and eco-friendly services through food data obtained by AI scan technology. Our AI Scanner identifies the types and amounts of each food on a single meal plate in a blink of time. Using this data, it analyzes and predicts how much of each meal will be consumed. This allows cafeterias and restaurants to plan every meal according to customer preferences and prepare the exact amount of ingredients needed. Our solution helps saving money by optimizing food preparation and serving amounts and protects the environment.
SLZ Inc. is a construction company in Korea that implements the BIM-XR technology for construction projects. We pursue a business model that improves accuracy and efficiency by converging IT and construction through smart technologies. SLZ Inc. derives the optimal design scheme with automation solutions. It creates the XR (eXtended Reality) digital twin of the construction sites based on BIM (building information modeling) data with international standards. SLZ Inc. applies collaboration between designers, contractors, and software developers and is rapidly growing into a solid and reliable service provider.
We are developing software by applying a series of compilable cognitive technologies to extract knowledge from content with in-depth integration of cognitive abilities of Artificial Intelligence. SW technologies such as "image recognition, text keyphrase extraction, text writing emotion analysis" can be satisfied with one click, and this knowledge enables new experiences for data exploration.
The therapeutic innovation startup WellsCare aims to lead the smart home care device market with its advanced technological expertise and innovation. It proudly manufactures the world's first hands-free wearable cold laser pain relief device, IASO. With FDA registered devices and global patents, WellsCare will bring a full lineup of pain relief solutions utilizing market proven, effective therapy methods augmented with today's technology. Targeting the pains of modern day people; the startup founded in 2016 continues to grow in becoming the leading brand in innovative pain management. For the day of life without pain, WellsCare is there.
Whatssub is a brand new subscription platform that helps consumers take control over their spending. While the subscription market in South Korea is growing fast, consumers are wasting money because they don’t know when or how much they’re paying for their subscriptions. Through Whatssub, users can automatically track all their subscriptions and decide on their spending directly, like instantly canceling unwanted ones or signing up for new ones that fit their tastes. By innovating the way people manage money in the subscription economy, we look to capture a $7.1B market opportunity in spending management.
AFI is a startup that makes a new one or a better one. Our mission is to save people's time and money with IT technology. Our first vision is to create a game server available to everyone. People who do not know the structure of a car can drive well if they learn how to drive. We will change the game server from having to study to practice.
Currently, about 530,000 women around the world are diagnosed with cervical cancer every year, and it is a serious situation where one person dies every 2 minutes. (WHO 2019) In particular, 85% of the deaths occur in developing countries, and cervical cancer occupies the first place among female cancers in developing and underdeveloped countries. AIDOT has developed the Cerviray AI system in order to allow all women around the world to easily receive screening without high barriers of cost, facilities, and professionals. Our motto is to make a better world with artificial intelligence technology.
Business Canvas is building "Typed," an easy-to-use workspace that transforms scattered information into your knowledge. Typed solves the challenge that every knowledge worker faces: spending more time on research and organization than the actual content to be created. According to McKinsey, this costs organizations $30M dollars annually. As your second brain, Typed saves your time and money by curating your scattered files with AI to recommend in real-time the contextually needed information for your next output so that you do the Typing, while Typed takes care of the rest. Right now, we are the fastest-growing startup in Korea. Our closed beta reached over 10,000 global users within 6 months, and our MAU is growing at 300% month-over-month.
12CM is a Korean startup providing the technology platform with Echoss Smart Stamp. Echoss Stamp is a touch-based stamp that interfaces with cloud authentication software to process transactions such as loyalty stamps & points, mobile vouchers, payments, and coupons. This technology allows for interactive marketing and payment directly with customers without Point of Sale integrations. We arm companies with the broadest set of possibilities for creating interactive experiences that drive new levels of customer engagement with mobile. We have established 6 subsidiaries / JV companies around the world, with our Global office based out of Singapore. Currently partnered with global companies in 22 countries providing innovative mobile marketing and commerce services.
Disease detection and spread are a longtime challenge for livestock farmers. AIDKR provides an animal digital healthcare platform to help livestock farmers detect any early signs of disease and abnormal behavior, and prevent the spread of disease by integrating AI, biotech, and vet-tech to provide One-health solution. As a result, we achieve higher quality consumed meat by reducing antibiotics up to 83%, and we maximize total profit by increasing revenue up to 30%.