Day2Life Heads to 500 Startups, 7 Other Korean Startups Invited for Late-Stage Interviews With Global Accelerators

Seoul, South Korea, October 23, 2015 (Newswire.com) - Eight of Korea’s most promising startups will soon head to global accelerators, for further interviews or to begin as part of an upcoming batch, after being selected during the second annual K-Global Startup Engine Demo Day, on October 21 at Seoul’s Renaissance Hotel.

The Demo Day, sponsored by Korea’s National IT Industry Promotion Agency (NIPA), brought together more than 100 representatives from 34 of Korea’s most promising startups to pitch their innovative businesses in front of from eight top global accelerators, along with nearly 100 industry VIPs, government dignitaries and journalists.

"I'd like to thank the startups, members of the press for coming today. I'd especially like to thank the global accelerators, whose programs and networks will be the engines that drive these startups on the road toward becoming global companies, and perhaps to become the second generation versions of Samsung and Hyundai."

In-hwan Park, Director at the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning

After a lightning round of two-minute elevator pitches, the accelerators selected 15 startups to deliver full five-minute presentations and participate in an intense Q&A. These startups included, 3.14, 3 Claps, Atto Cube, Baum, Contents First, Day2Life, FromNull Soft, FruitLab, Hello Mission, Melephant, MoreDream, Moving Key, Richslide, Sustainability.org, Taggle.

Day2Life to Enter 500 Startups

From these finalists, accelerator 500 Startups selected Day2Life, maker of calendar app June, to directly enter its program. “Day2Life has already proven itself in the Korean market. We’re confident that we can help them understand the needs of customers around the world to create a successful global product,” said Haley Kim, and associate at 500 Startups.

Additional Startups Invited for Final Interviews

Accelerators selected several other companies for final-round interviews. These interviews will give the accelerators additional time to assess the startups and meet the full teams. The interviews will take place in the accelerators’ home cities. Chosen startups include:

●      Chinaccelerator: Contents First, Taggle, Moving Key

●      500 Startups: More Dream

●      HAX Accelerator: Richslide, Attocube, Fromnull Soft

NIPA and Organizers Award Additional Prizes

Three other finalists were selected by the accelerators to receive three runner-up prizes worth $1,000, sponsored by NIPA. ivLessons took home the Pioneer Prize, Sustainability.org took home the Unicorn Prize and Memoirs took home the Global Explorer Prize.

Baum, a crowd favorite, took home the King of Stage award for a presentation that made its highly technical power management solution easy to understand. According to Nathan Millard, CEO of G3 Partners, who coached the startups on how to pitch, Baum showed the greatest improvement over the past weeks.

Quote from MSIC Director In-hwan Park​

In his opening remarks, In-hwan Park, a director at the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning, thanked all of the accelerators and mentors for supporting the startups throughout the pre-acceleration program. He summed up his hopes for the program, saying:

“I'd like to thank the startups, members of the press for coming today. I'd especially like to thank the global accelerators, whose programs and networks will be the engines that drive these startups on the road toward becoming global companies, and perhaps to become the second generation versions of Samsung and Hyundai.”

The K-Global Startup Engine Demo Day was the capstone on a four-week pre-acceleration program aimed at placing as many Korean startups as possible into eight global accelerators. In addition to sponsoring this program, NIPA will also provide each of the startups selected to participate in global accelerators with KRW 30 million to cover expenses while abroad.

Each of the participating accelerators sent one judge for the Demo Day, including Amanda Zamurs from Techstars, Haley Kim from 500 Startups, Sia Houchangnia from Seedcamp, Benjamin Joffe from HAX Accelerator, William Bao Bean from Chinaccelerator, Norbert Sommer from Startup Bootcamp, Ravi Belani from Alchemist and Shida Schubert from Open Network Lab.

The K-Global Startup Engine Demo Day is sponsored and supported by the National IT Industry Promotion Agency. The event, as well as the larger program, was organized by DEV Korea, Accelerate Korea and G3 Partners.