Maru SF to open in Silicon Valley in November as Korean startup gateway

Maru SF to open in Silicon Valley in November as Korean startup gateway

Maru SF, a startup campus and networking hub operated by the Asan Nanum Foundation, will open in Silicon Valley this November, marking the organizat...

K-beauty contract manufacturers see record Q2 profits; rally likely to continue

K-beauty contract manufacturers see record Q2 profits; rally likely to continue

South Korea’s major original design manufacturers (ODMs) for cosmetics, led by Cosmax Inc. and Kolmar Korea Co., are estimated to have posted ...

K-beauty craze sends Olive Young online sales to new heights

K-beauty craze sends Olive Young online sales to new heights

CJ Olive Young Corp., South Korea’s top beauty store chain, is another beneficiary of the global K-beauty surge, with its online cosmetics sal...

Samsung supplies newest nanoprism image sensors to Xiaomi to crack Sony’s lead

Samsung supplies newest nanoprism image sensors to Xiaomi to crack Sony’s lead

Samsung Electronics Co. is supplying a new high-performance image sensor featuring nanoprism technology to China’s Xiaomi, as the South Korean...

Korea’s game studios rebrand as AI tech firms, move into fashion, robotics, media

Korea’s game studios rebrand as AI tech firms, move into fashion, robotics, media

What was once a world of elves, dragons and power-ups is now giving rise to one of South Korea’s most unexpected tech revolutions, with game s...

Rap icon Cardi B joins K-beauty’s celebrity fan club with BB cream

Rap icon Cardi B joins K-beauty’s celebrity fan club with BB cream

Cardi B, the Grammy-winning rapper, has joined the growing list of celebrities spotlighting Korean beauty products, fueling a new wave of global ent...

Saudi Crown Prince bin Salman courts Korean AI startups as Riyadh, Abu Dhabi vie to build tech hubs

Saudi Crown Prince bin Salman courts Korean AI startups as Riyadh, Abu Dhabi vie to build tech hubs

Back in the 1960s and 1970s, the Middle East was a land of opportunity for many South Korean construction workers, who labored there under the scorc...

Samsung to buy US health tech firm Xealth in digital health push

Samsung to buy US health tech firm Xealth in digital health push

Samsung Electronics Co. will acquire Xealth, a US-based healthcare platform provider, as it steps up efforts to foster non-semiconductor businesses ...

Hong Kong-based CLSA to invest $36.6 mn in K-Beauty pioneer Jungsaemmool Beauty

Hong Kong-based CLSA to invest $36.6 mn in K-Beauty pioneer Jungsaemmool Beauty

Hong Kong-based private equity firm CLSA Capital Partners Ltd. has been picked as a preferred bidder to invest 50 billion won ($36.6 million) in Jun...

Sale of $1.5 bn Pangyo Tech 1, overseen by Mirae Asset, draws strong bids from global PEFs

Sale of $1.5 bn Pangyo Tech 1, overseen by Mirae Asset, draws strong bids from global PEFs

The sale of Pangyo Tech 1, a landmark office tower in Pangyo, South Korea’s answer to the US' Silicon Valley, has drawn strong bidding interes...

Taekwang, Anchor Equity shortlisted for Aekyung stake

Taekwang, Anchor Equity shortlisted for Aekyung stake

Taekwang Industrial Co., a South Korean chemical and textile company, and Anchor Equity Partners, a Hong Kong-based private equity firm, have emerge...

Blackstone in talks to acquire Korea’s top salon chain Juno Hair in $590 mn deal

Blackstone in talks to acquire Korea’s top salon chain Juno Hair in $590 mn deal

US private equity firm Blackstone Inc. is pursuing the acquisition of Juno Hair, South Korea’s largest premium hair salon chain, in a deal tha...

Even barcodes copied: Counterfeits invasion threatens K-brands

Even barcodes copied: Counterfeits invasion threatens K-brands

Counterfeit Korean beauty, fashion and food products are surging on overseas e-commerce platforms, with lookalike packaging making them hard to dist...

Google to invest $100 mn in Gentle Monster in smart glasses push

Google to invest $100 mn in Gentle Monster in smart glasses push

Google LLC has signed an agreement to invest about 145.0 billion won ($100 million) in Gentle Monster, the South Korean fashion eyewear brand that i...

Lockheed Martin, KAI to expand partnership to future defense, aerospace tech

Lockheed Martin, KAI to expand partnership to future defense, aerospace tech

Global defense giant Lockheed Martin Corp. and Korea Aerospace Industries Ltd. (KAI) on Tuesday agreed to expand their collaboration into futur...

Amazon, Alibaba, TikTok up ante to woo Korean beauty brands

Amazon, Alibaba, TikTok up ante to woo Korean beauty brands

Riding the wave of global enthusiasm for K-Beauty, e-commerce powerhouses like Amazon and Alibaba are racing to bring South Korean cosmetics and bea...

LG CNS forms strategic partnership with robotics startup Skild AI

LG CNS forms strategic partnership with robotics startup Skild AI

LG CNS Co., the information technology service arm of LG Group, said on Tuesday it has formed a strategic partnership with Skild AI to develop AI-dr...

Want to look beautiful? – Here’s the 'Made In Korea' mask pack

Want to look beautiful? – Here’s the 'Made In Korea' mask pack

South Korean face mask packs – a flagship product of K-beauty – are staging a dramatic revival in popularity.Rising to fame alongside K-...

Samsung teases new foldable phones with advanced AI

Samsung teases new foldable phones with advanced AI

Samsung Electronics Co. will empower its next Galaxy Z foldable smartphones with advanced artificial intelligence features as it seeks to extend its...

Hanjin KAL, LS expand defense business alliance to counter Hoban Group

Hanjin KAL, LS expand defense business alliance to counter Hoban Group

South Korea’s Hanjin Group and LS Group are tightening their alliance further against Hoban Group, which is raising its stake in Hanjin.Korean...

South Korea’s startup M&A winter deepens capital bottleneck  

South Korea’s startup M&A winter deepens capital bottleneck  

South Korea’s startup M&A winter has deepened as once major investors like conglomerates are prioritizing restructuring over expansion, ch...

Bold food tech R&D fuels global rise of Korean cuisine

Bold food tech R&D fuels global rise of Korean cuisine

South Korea’s processed food exports are expected to reach 6 trillion won ($4.4 billion) this year after Korean food companies have aggressive...

Europe looms large as K-beauty brands look to blue ocean; shares rise

Europe looms large as K-beauty brands look to blue ocean; shares rise

South Korea’s beauty industry has been reaping decent gains from traditionally strong markets such as China and the US – the world&rsquo...

K-Beauty defies seasonal slump with record $980 mn in April exports

K-Beauty defies seasonal slump with record $980 mn in April exports

The global appetite for Korean beauty products shows no sign of slowing, with their exports in April surging 20% year on year to a record high, ev...

Korea's science ministry picks 10 AI, digital startups to back global growth

Korea's science ministry picks 10 AI, digital startups to back global growth

South Korea’s Ministry of Science and ICT on Thursday announced that it has selected 10 startups founded by Koreans in a program to support th...

Shinsegae Chair Chung joins Trump’s Middle East tour

Shinsegae Chair Chung joins Trump’s Middle East tour

Chung Yong-jin, chairman of South Korea’s retail group Shinsegae Inc., is the only Korean businessperson accompanying US President Donald Trum...

Hanwha's 'Sea Ghost' makes waves as Greece eyes unmanned naval tech

Hanwha's 'Sea Ghost' makes waves as Greece eyes unmanned naval tech

GEOJE, South Korea – Under a slate-grey sky at the quiet port of Jangmok on South Korea’s southern coast, a sleek, 12-meter vessel slipp...

In China’s waterway city Hangzhou, K-beauty redefines ‘shuiguang'

In China’s waterway city Hangzhou, K-beauty redefines ‘shuiguang'

HANGZHOU – The capital of China’s Zhejiang province, Hangzhou, is the southern terminus of the ancient Grand Canal waterway, which origi...

With Ulta deal, APR steps up US beauty push

With Ulta deal, APR steps up US beauty push

Medicube, the beauty-tech brand under South Korea’s fast-growing beauty company APR Co., will sell its products through both online and offlin...

Soon for sale: Altos Ventures-backed Cafe Knotted operator

Soon for sale: Altos Ventures-backed Cafe Knotted operator

Silicon Valley-based Altos Ventures-backed Good Food For Good (GFFG), operator of South Korea’s popular dessert cafe, Cafe Knotted, will likel...

Kakao Pay backs out of acquisition deal for SSG Pay, Smile Pay Hanwha in talks to buy five-star hotel Paraspara Seoul Kia's Lego-like PV5 with 16 variants to hit market in July Stray Kids make K-pop history with landmark stadium show in Germany S.Korea’s most prominent business leader returns with all charges cleared