We publish research reports analyzing 2016 startup investment trends in korea.

This report summarizes the monthly investment trends of 2016, current investment by their scale, current investment by industry and business’s age, investor status, and annual M&A status based on 347 startup investment deals and 22 M&A deals made in 2016.

This report is based on official deals made last year and some VC public data.

Unlisted investments are not included in this report’s scope.

Basic data used in the 2016 Startup Investment Trends in Korea

1. 2016 investment and M&A: 369 (investment ‒ 347, M&A ‒ 22)

2. Investment startup in 2016 (Investee Co.): 313 companies (232 full disclosure, 5 partial disclosure, and 76 non-disclosure)

3. Investment companies participating in 2016: 249 companies (based on business name disclosure)

-Definition of startup: “A company with a business model that is expected to grow rapidly based on new ideas or technologies. It may be a company that is listed on the best trading app of the stock market or has not yet merged into a large company.” (Part of this definition was borrowed from the definition of startup alliance.)

-Companies that received more than 2 investments during the year are calculated by applying the total cumulative investment amount (partial disclosure included).

-The investment scale graph was calculated based on investments in 237 companies that disclosed their amounts (full or partial disclosure).

-The age of a business is based its age in Dec. 2016.

-Excluded investments: Investments after acquisition (e.g. Kakao subsidiary Podotree investment of $106.5M) / Startup support company (e.g. Future Play $2.6M) / Large company subsidiary (e.g. GS Plus subsidiary, 29CM $2.6M) / Companies outside the startup phase (e.g. Ticket monster $40M)

-In the case of joint investment, most individual investment amounts were not disclosed. Therefore, only data for investment participation and total investment scale was available.

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