sparklabskorea

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SparkLabs 1st Japan Demo Day and Investor Networking Event in Tokyo!

Date: Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Time: 14:00 - 17:00 (registration starts at 13:00)

- Presentations by 8 SparkLabs startup companies from South Korea

- Investment/Business Matching & Networking Event

*17:00 There will be a reception following the event (food will be served)

RSVP here!

Atomico and SparkLabs, Korea’s premier startup accelerator, will host an event in Japan to introduce Korean startup venture companies from the SparkLabs program. This event aims to create networking opportunities with Japanese companies and investors and promote the development of startup companies between Korea and Japan.

SparkLabs was established to develop, invest, and cultivate Korean startup companies with a global vision. Founded in 2012, SparkLabs has invested and supported over 40 startup companies. Together with specialists from a wide range of fields including E-commerce, gaming, big data, cloud, mobile, education, healthcare, and hardware, they provide comprehensive support for startups by providing access to world-class mentors and overseas networks in order to help accelerate their global expansion.

Venue: Bellesalle 1st Floor

Address: 106-0032 7-18-18 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo-to Sumitomo Fudosan Roppongi-dori Building 1F

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Save the Date for DemoDay6!

SparkLabs’ DemoDay6 will be held on December 11th, 2015 in Seoul!  Please save the date if you are interested in attending.

We expect the attendance to surpass the over 1,400 people who supported our last class.  The current batch is working diligently on building their companies, products and operations.  We look forward to their presentations on Dec. 11th!

We also have lined up for you 3 incredible entrepreneurs who will tell their stories about their roads to success:

Toni Ko, Founder & CEO of NYX Cosmetics

Justin Kan, Co-founder of Twitch, Partner at Y Combinator

Mike Lee, Co-founder & CEO of MyFitnessPal

Toni Ko is the founder of the multi-million dollar cosmetics brand NYX, which was recently acquired by the largest beauty company in the world, L’Oreal, for a reported $500 million. 

Discovering a gap in the cosmetics market between prestige brands sold in department stores and mass brands sold in drugstores, Ko created NYX in 1999, with the goal of delivering professional, richly pigmented products at affordable prices. Working as a one-woman show from a 600-square-foot showroom in California, Ko began selling a single item – makeup pencils. She impressively generated two million dollars in sales during her first year, and quickly grew to become a leader in the color cosmetics industry, gaining the respect of such retail giants as Target, CVS and Ulta.

Justin Kan is an internet entrepreneur and partner at seed fund Y Combinator. Justin has founded many companies including Kiko, the first AJAX web calendar and Justin.tv, a live video streaming platform.  His attempt to broadcast his entire life at Justin.tv popularized the term "lifecasting".  The company decided to transition to providing a live video platform so anyone could publish a live video stream. Justin.tv, the platform, launched in 2007 and was one of the largest live video platforms in the world with more than 30 million unique users every month.

Justin also co-founded Socialcam, a mobile video sharing app (acquired for $60mm by Autodesk in 2012); Twitch, a video game streaming platform (acquired by for $970mm by Amazon in 2014); and Exec, an on demand home cleaning service (acquired by Handybook in 2014).  Justin graduated from Yale University with a degree in Physics and Philosophy.

Mike Lee is co-founder of MyFitnessPal, the leading health and fitness platform. MyFitnessPal was acquired by Under Armour for $475 million in early 2015. 

Prior to founding MyFitnessPal, Mike co-founded NextC, a venture-funded startup focused on building online communities., During his 20 year tenure in the technology industry, Mike has held leadership positions at several other top start-ups in Silicon Valley, including Palm, Handspring, Beyond.com, and Regis McKenna.  Mike graduated summa cum laude from Princeton with a B.A. in economics.

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Bernard's interview on Analyse Asia's podcast.

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DoubleMe's coverage from Tech in Asia.

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Congratulations to Wanted Lab from our 5th Class for raising their first round of investment ($1.5million) from KTB Network, Mirae Asset Ventures and StoneBridge Capital. SparkLabs 5기 원티드랩이 서비스 런칭 4개월 만에 투자 유치를 완료 했습니다. 축하드립니다!

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KT 올레 기가 IoT 메이커스 데이에서 SparkLabs 5기 이명수 디자인랩이 대상을 수상하였습니다. 축하드립니다! Congratulations to Lee Myung Su Design Lab (Seilbag) for winning 1st place at KT Olleh Giga IoT Competition!

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"Arizona State University Michael Crow to tell TODAY's Matt Lauer about a first-of-its-kind public service academy that will train civilian and military leaders together, offering millennials a new way to perform service for America."

Tom Brokaw, "[Michael Crow is] One of the two or three greatest university presidents we have in this country..."

SparkLabs is proud to have him as our advisor!

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Post by one of our mentors, Sungmoon Cho

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스타트업에게 성장은 가장 중요한 부분이지만, 엑셀러레이터를 통해 초기에 빠른 성장을 거두고 정체기를 겪는 스타트업들이 많습니다. 이와 관련해 Y-Combinator의 Sam Altman이 글을 기재하였는데요, 슬럼프를 겪는 스타트업들에게 도움이 되길 바랍니다.

Our senior associate’s, Sophia Choi, blog post!

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Congratulations to Michael Crow, our advisor!

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마지막으로 소개해드릴 데모데이 5 피칭 영상은 Tree Planet 트리플래닛입니다! 스파크랩이 투자한 첫번째 사회적기업인 트리플래닛은 게임과 크라우드 펀딩 등을 통해 나무를 심는 일을 하고 있습니다. 1억 그루의 나무를 심는 것을 목표로 달리고 있는 트리플래닛의 감동적인 발표를 들어 보세요!

Treeplanet is a mobile game company that allows you to plant real trees and green the Earth. Choose a forest, play the game, and save our trees across the globe.

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오늘 소개해드릴 영상은 파이퀀트의 데모데이 5 발표 영상입니다. 파이퀀트는 음식물을 스캔하여 멜라민을 검출할 수 있는 IoT 기기를 개발했습니다. 미래에는 모든 음식의 신선도와 영양 정보를 파이퀀트의 제품을 통해서 확인하고 먹게 될지도 모릅니다.

PiQuant has developed a handheld IoT device, which is able to scan food so consumers know more about the freshness, country of origin, nutrition information before they buy or eat the food.

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오늘 소개해드릴 영상은 뭐야이번호의 개발사 "에바인"의 데모데이 5 발표 영상입니다. 스팸 전화의 홍수 속에서 우리를 구출해주고 있는 필수 앱 "뭐야 이 번호"의 스토리를 들어보시죠!

Evain's product, "What's This Number?" is the first Korean app that identifies phone numbers and filter out spam calls. With this service, users can instantly figure out incoming calls, so they can block out any unnecessary calls or reduce the chance of missing important calls.

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Bernard Moon's op-ed at VentureBeat based on SparkLabs Global's recent "Top 10 Global Startup Hubs" report.

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Sparklabs Global's cool infographic to go along with their analysis of the Top 10 Global Startup Hubs!