PROFOUND NAMED KOREA’S BEST STARTUP AT SEEDSTARS SEOUL
On August 3rd during Seedstars Seoul, Profound won the Korea round of Seedstars World and will represent the country at the Seedstars Summit in Switzerland to compete for up to USD 1 million in equity investment.
Seedstars World, the global seed-stage startup competition for emerging markets and fast-growing startup scenes brought its Korea round to a successful close during Seedstars Seoul. The event took place this Wednesday at D.CAMP, and eight selected startups were invited to present their ideas in front of the local jury panel.
The local winner, Profound, was selected the best startup in Korea for its marketplace connecting consultants and industry experts with clients in need of spot and project consulting solution. As a part of the prize, Profound will be participating at Seedstars Summit, taking place in Switzerland in April 2018, a weeklong training program with the opportunity to meet the other 65 winners, as well as investors and mentors from around the world. Traditionally, the final day of the Summit will be dedicated to pitching in front of audience of 1000 attendees, with the possibility of winning up to the USD 1 million equity investment.
Rootee Health with its a wearable fundus camera and accompanying software to analyze the eye for early signs of disease came second and Allb, a wearable for babies that alerts parents via their smartphones as to the baby’s vitals, that is primarily intended to avoid Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, grabbed the last spot in the top 3. The other startups invited to pitch were BluePrintLab, Jobfinder, SPRYFIT, TagHive and TheFit.
The eight startups pitched in front of a prestigious jury, including Jury member name and companies, who had a hard choice to make. The jury consisted of Nathan Millard from G3 Partners, Yong-Moon Kim from Tandem Investors, Siwan Kim from D.CAMP, Gin Hyeon from Ascan, and Adriana Collini from Seedstars.
Seedstars Seoul also featured speaker Doyeon Pi, CEO and founder of Piquant, who won the Seedstars competition in Seoul last year and was awarded “most innovative startup” at the Seedstars Global Summit in Switzerland by Hublot. The local Ambassador of Seedstars World, Nathan Millard, organized the event with Seedstars World’s local partners G3 Partners. Further support was provided by D.CAMP and BrewDog. The event attracted interest from over 60, and over 70.
On a regional level, Seedstars is also partnered with the Merck Accelerator, in order to support seed-stage companies in Korea, and across Asia and Africa with a focus on the fields of healthcare, life science and performance materials. The most promising HealthTech startups will receive office space in the Merck Innovation Center in Kenya or Germany, mentoring and coaching on a regular basis and financial support of up to €50,000.
Continuing on its world tour of startup scenes in emerging markets and fast-growing startup scenes, Seedstars World’s next stop is Shanghai, to select the best startup in China. Seedstars World is looking for smart startups that solve regional issues and/or develop profitable products for the global market.