Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) ‘s ‘Korean Startup Showcase 2022 Singapore’ second day started with a session with VC Gang Chern Sun at the NUS Enterprise office on October 26. The Korean travel startups presented their pitches and had a Q&A session with Gang Chem Sun. The four-day program from October 24-28, 2022, has 7 Korean travel startups showcasing their products and services to potential global investors and VCs in Singapore. The program conducted by KTO is organized by CNT Tech and co-hosted by Cuvee April.
NUS Enterprise plays a pivotal role in advancing innovation and entrepreneurship in Singapore. BLOCK71 is an initiative by NUS Enterprise in collaborative and strategic partnerships with established corporates and government agencies. It is a technology-focused ecosystem builder and global connector that catalyzes and aggregates the startup community.
In Singapore, BLOCK71 spearheads new initiatives and provides mentorship and growth opportunities in key local, regional and global markets. Gang Chern Sun has been a senior associate director of Ecosystem Development (Incubation) at NUS Enterprise for over 11 years.
The Korean 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.
Gang Chern Sun had a one-to-one session with each Korean travel startup as they presented their products and services. He asked them about the business model, revenue generation, customer retention, etc. “What is the problem you are trying to solve? What is the target audience, and how is your user retention rate,” he asked the WeAreFriends startup team that runs an app to find travel buddies worldwide.
Seoul Unnieudiel, which operates a successful K-beauty content platform in Myanmar, was asked about how they are managing content and whether they have any provision to ensure that the consumer doesn’t bypass their platform to reach out directly to the seller. Gang Chern Sun wanted to know from Enkorwithus, a residential service for visitors to Korea, how they intend to expand beyond Korea. And he was curious about the go-to-market strategy of Walking Master, a company manufacturing insoles for Asian feet.
The program in Singapore has mentoring sessions, VC meetings and a Demo day event 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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- Seoul Unniedeul aims to make ‘Star Secret Korea’ the No. 1 K-beauty brand content platform in Myanmar
