KTO’s Korean Startup Showcase 2022 Singapore participating startups pitch their businesses to funders on Demo Day2 

Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) ‘s ‘Korean Startup Showcase 2022 Singapore’ conducted its second demo day on October 27, with seven Korean travel startups showcasing their products and services to potential investors and VCs. The four-day program from October 24-28, 2022 is conducted by KTO, organized by CNT Tech, and co-hosted by Cuvee April.

The second demo day was held at Gunderson Dettmer Singapore LLP Office, an international law firm with an exclusive focus on the innovation economy. Jonathan Pentizen, managing and founding partner of Gunderson Dettmer’s Singapore office, welcomed the investors and startups. CNT Tech CEO Jeon Hwaseong introduced the travel startups and briefly explained his company, a Korean accelerator firm. 

The Korean travel startups that are part of the program are WeAreFriends Co., ltd., an online world travel app developer; Seoul Unniedeul, a K-beauty content platform; Gleam Media Group INC, a K-Pop fan platform; Enkorwithus: a residential service for foreigners visiting Korea; Wmclub, a service that matches functional shoes and insoles; Globaleur, an AI-driven itinerary recommendation and optimization engine; VEStellaLab, a navigation app for parking space.

The VCs and investors that attended the Demo Day on October 27: 

Mark Edward Pawley, Chairman, Blackrun Partners

Mark has been chairman at Blackrun Partners for over two years. He has over 30 years of experience in the financial sector. He has previously worked in senior positions with ARC Resorts Pte. Ltd, Oxley Capital Group, Global Emerging Markets Coverage Group/ Asia Pacific Investment Banking at Credit Suisse. Blackrun Partners is a principal investment and corporate advisory firm engaged in the activities of Venture Capital, Private Equity, Special Situations and Family Office services. It has offices and affiliate partners in Singapore, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, London, Beijing and Dubai.

Simon Wong, Partner, Partners Venture Capital

Simon is partner & MD APAC at Partners Venture Capital in Singapore. Simon has worked with Carzuno, Be Group JSC Vietnam, and Offshore Engineering Resources (OER) Pte Ltd. Partners Venture Capital invests in early-stage disruptive companies.  

Lorraine Ge, Analyst, Cathay Innovation

Lorraine is an analyst at Cathay Innovation in Singapore and has earlier been Series B / Investor at AI Rudder, Series A / Investor at Intellect (YC S21) Singapore and Pre-Series A / Investor at CreditBook.

Cathay Innovation is a global venture capital partnership created with Cathay Capital, investing in startups at the center of the digital revolution across North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia and Africa. It is a multistage fund with over $1.5 billion in assets under management and offices across San Francisco, New York, Paris, Shanghai, Beijing and Singapore.

Yang En, Investor, Insignia 

Yang is a venture Fellow at Venture Insignia Ventures Academy and Co-Founder & Venture Builder at Audacity World. Insignia Ventures Academy is home to Southeast Asia’s first experiential Venture Capital’ VC’ accelerator to nurture the next generation of leaders, investors and entrepreneurs.

John Lim, Partner, Meet Ventures 

John has been a Partner at Meet Ventures for three years. He worked with AWS Startup Scoutat Amazon Web Services (AWS) and has been a Guest Lecturer National University of Singapore, Singapore Institute of Technology, Head of BD & Marketing at LongHash Ventures, Senior Associate, Innovation at KPMG and Management Associate at SGInnovate. Meet Ventures is a consultancy firm specializing in running startup accelerators and market access programs.

Jamaine Lee, Analyst, Altara Ventures

Jamaine is an Investment Analyst at Altara Ventures and worked with Go-Ventures, 180 Degrees Consulting Nanyang Technological University, Gentree Fund, and Halogen-Linkedin Mentorship Programme at LinkedIn. Altara Ventures is a technology venture capital firm headquartered in Singapore and investing across Southeast Asia.

Lok Yek Soon, Partner Awesome Ventures VC

Lok is Founder and Managing Partner at Awesome Ventures VC, Co-founding Partner at ZNFrontier, and worked at SSII (中新创新学院) Singapore, China, Cohort 2 Fellow at Angel School and Mentor at Lean LaunchPad Singapore. Awesome Ventures is a venture capital firm that invests in outstanding technology businesses from the Seed to Series A stage.  

Rock Oh, CEO, Awesome Ventures 

Rock Oh is the CEO and managing partner of Awesome Ventures. He has 11+ years of global software product experience. He was a managing director of DEV, a New York-based Venture Capital firm where he invested in Korean startups and US companies, and was an LP for accelerator funds in the US with its Delaware fund. Rock Oh has also worked with Samsung. Awesome Ventures is a global accelerator in Seoul, expanding business to Singapore.

Others who attended the demo day 2 included Sunuk Yoo, Manager, Awesome Ventures; Seyoon Chung, Director, Awesome Ventures; Andrea Lee, Marketing and Community Manager, EduSpaze, Nabila Abu Talib, Programme Manager, EduSpaze; Cindy Teoh, Director, Golden Equator Ventures; Anselmo Park, Director, Lighthouse Canton; Nicole Mae Wong, Analyst, Asia Partners; and Kris Liang, Manager, Meet Ventures.

Each startup founder got time to present their products and services to the VCs and investors. The investors asked various questions of the startups regarding their pitches, like revenue growth, projection, competition, marketing potential, technology, expansion plan to Singapore and Southeast Asia, market strategy, user retention, etc. 

The program in Singapore had mentoring sessions, VC meetings and two Demo day events for startups. The Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and KTO have set up a Korea Tourism Startup Center(KTSC) in Singapore in 2022 to help tourism startups create more opportunities in Singapore and Southeast Asia. Since 2011, KTO has accelerated more than 1,000 startups over the past 12 years. In the last three years, it has worked to develop startups into innovative tourism companies through a specialized program for global market expansion.

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