Startups cater to your personal needs

/ Courtesy of Kukka

A growing number of startup companies are trying to change the business landscape in defiance of conglomerates that have long dominated the economy in Korea.

According to the Small and Medium Business Administration (SMBA), the number of newly established companies has risen more than 30 percent, from 56,830 in 2009 to 75,574 last year.

The increase was partly attributed to the growing youth unemployment rate. Statistics Korea data shows that the jobless rate for young people reached a record high last year, with the biggest annual rise in 12 years.

A second wave of dotcom firms is also gaining prominence.

The creation of a startup-friendly environment with a growing number of angel investors, accelerators, and government programs has contributed to the changing business scene in recent years.

Investments from venture capitalists have increased 27 percent in three years, according to the Korea Venture Capital Association.

And more people with working experience in big companies have quit and started small venture companies as part of their efforts to create “something from nothing.”

“I wanted to be someone to create the new culture, one that was unfamiliar in Korea,” said Park Chun-hwa, CEO of venture company Kukka.

With the dynamic startup environment, here are some of the companies you should keep your eye on, providing services ranging from fashion to technology.

1. Zikto

Zikto recently introduced a wearable healthcare band called “Arki” that corrects walking posture.

Two Purdue graduates, Kim Kyung-tae and Seo Han-seok, established the company when KAIST graduate Kim Seong-hyun joined the team. The talented trio successfully won six patents in just six months by cashing in on their experiences with global companies.

While the market for wearable healthcare devices is only at an early stage, Arki leads the way, receiving $165,000 recently from one of the world’s biggest crowd-funding sites, Kickstarter.

2. Kukka

Purchasing flowers is mostly for celebrations or special occasions in Korea. Per head spending is about 13,000 won, just 10 percent of the spending in the U.S., England, and Japan.

The founders of Kukka, which means “flower” in Finnish, want to make buying flowers part of daily life in Korea. Their flower delivery service allows people to do this.

Reasonable prices have helped Kukka grow rapidly over the past few months. For more information, visit www.kukka.kr.

3. Pinspot

Pinspot is an application that helps you find the right place specific to your needs. Categories include parties, meetings, events, pop-up stores, and even photo shoots.

The website has more than 222 places users can search. It opened in November last year.

4. Teamblind

Blind is an SNS service provided by Teamblind. It is an anonymous mobile community where people working in the same company or industry can communicate.

The service has community “lounges” where people can share their thoughts and information such as yearly wages, incentives, or organization structure.

The application has five lounges: IT, finance, airlines, media, and motor.

Blind is also known to be the first place where the ‘nut rage’ incident was live streamed.

5. Stripes

Stripes helps find “perfect shirts” for businesspeople. The goal is to provide custom-made shirts for men of all ages. A stylist meets the client to determine the needs.

Since its launch in April 2013, the company has had 10 million customers and is growing rapidly. Last year, the company received a $1 million investment from Smilegate Investment.

6. Vingle

Vingle is a Korean-based social network service connecting people with similar interests and passions around the globe. Jiwon Moon and Changseong Ho founded it in October 2011. They began their startup career with Viki, a successful subtitle translation service. It was later sold to Rakuten, a Japanese e-commerce company, for $200 million (223 billion won).

Vingle is estimated to be valued at $1 billion. More recognized in the global market than in Korea, the service has grown rapidly since its debut in July 2012.

7. Dining Code

You have probably experienced frustration while searching for restaurants with “real reviews” on Naver blogs. To ease this problem, a former worker at a Samsung software center, and current media engineering professor, has developed algorithms to help find the information.

Unlike most applications that recommend restaurants based on an area, Dining Code can search information with words based on specific foods, such as “fresh grape juice” and “apple pie” or specific occasions, such as a “blind date.”

Dining Code was first introduced online in December 2013. A mobile application was launched in December 2014.