The Yonsei University Campustown Center is running the “Global IR Project” to help startups with innovative ideas go global.
Focusing on startups who have advanced technology and services but are struggling due to the lack of information, it hosts an event called “A-STREAM” which provides its participants with investment feedback from foreign investors.
The program also aids successful foreign market entry by networking with foreign VCs and related institutions from every continent.
AI matching service startup "We Are Friends" operates the mobile platform "TriPriend" that makes everyone in the world into friends.
TriPriend, a combination of the words “trip” and “friend,” is a matching service that uses AI to match foreigners and friends with similar interests.
It introduces a virtual trip around the world for users who want to chat, and also helps users who are actually travelling to other countries to meet friends.
It currently has 250,000 users in 176 countries who are interested in “online trips around the world.”
TriPriend’s goal is to create a branch office based on its local marketing strategy for the target continent, and launch various campaigns after analyzing the local culture to grow as a true global service.
“As a company aiming to create a global service, being introduced to various global VCs was a great experience,” said CEO Jo Kye-yeon. “The best part was being able to acquire a variety of information related to the global market.”
"Your Wish" is a gifting platform which makes it easy for the sender, and the receiver can select the gift they want.
If you enter the receiver’s gender and age, and a price range, then links are generated for around 8 different gift candidates recommended by AI
The receiver simply has to select the product they like. This greatly reduces the burden of sending and receiving gifts.
Your Wish’s differentiation is not in contact free gifts or digital gift coupons, but in tangible gifts and that it provides a choice for these gifts.
The company plans to solve the inefficiencies in the corporate gifting market and grow into a gift commerce platform based on preference data.
It also wants to enter the B2C market which is a larger potential market compared to the B2B market and plans to provide a simple but fun service flow to satisfy its customers.
“We will innovate the contact free gifting process and become a leader in gift commerce,” said CEO Choi Yong-hyeon. “We want to deliver the warm heart of people by providing a simple gifting process that satisfies both you and me.”
"Juvic" is a medicine development company developing technology to allow more people to easily and safely use diverse medicines.
It is developing a “soluble microneedle medicine” where medicine is delivered into the body through a transdermal patch, like a bandaid, instead of a needle injection. This includes patch based vaccines, local anesthesia, hair loss cures, and hormone drugs.
The soluble microneedle patch attaches and penetrates the skin, where the needle itself is dissolved by body fluids and body temperature, and the drug contained in the needle is then absorbed by the body.
The needles are extremely small so there is almost no pain and anyone can administer it by themselves.
Recognized for this technology, Juvic was awarded the Yonsei Startup Award in 2016 and is collaborating with various pharmaceutical companies, research institutions, and university hospitals for product development.
“We will do our best until the day comes where we can protect the health of people through products using Juvic’s technology,” said CEO Yang Hui-seok.
"Pluviophile" developed the "Digital Doctor Dr. Dozy", an AI based sleep solution.
It includes measuring personal sleep cycles using the sleep stage classification model, playing sleep cycle customized sleep inducing sounds, and providing a daily 4 page sleep analysis report.
Pluviophile started with a capital of KRW 15million won and was able to do brainwave research, product development, acquire IP, mass production, and marketing to achieve 170% of its crowdfunding goal in 3 months.
It developed the mobile app service and two AI models in 3 months after starting its service planning.
The company’s goal is to become the largest sleep-tech company in the world. Starting with the Korean sleep-tech market for people in their 20s and 30s, it plans to expand to the global sleep-tech market.
Since its main technology, which is the self developed sleep inducing sounds, is not limited by language, it has high expectations that it can expand globally fairly quickly.
“We want to give the gift of a comfortable night's sleep for all the people who have trouble sleeping by providing a sure sleep solution without side effects,” said CEO Kwon Seo-hyeon.
