Flying High
K Cube Ventures, in which Daum Kakao owns a 10 percent stake, is making an investment in promising venture firms involved in the Online To Offline (O2O) and Internet of Things (IoT) fields in order to secure new growth engines.
On Sept. 2, Daum Kakao announced that it invested 300 million won (US$253,059) in UVify, a start-up that develops artificial intelligence-based drones. The start-up consists mainly of those with PhD degrees in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering department at Seoul National University, and it specializes in making drones that can automatically operate without totally relying on humans. UVify aims to make safer auto drones by applying artificial intelligence and robot technology to computer vision, image-based 3D location recognition, and Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM), and signal processing and control technology.
K Cube Ventures, which was established by Kim Beom-soo in 2012, the chairman of the board at Kakao at that time, is actively looking for startups after it merged with Daum Kakao as an affiliate in last March. Since then, the venture capital firm made an investment in seven companies, and five of them are technology and platform start-ups. Dable, which was invested by K Cube Ventures last June, is a personalized platform provider based on big data and machine learning. Home care O2O service provider BratVillage, in which K Cube Ventures made an investment in Aug., connects consumers with most affordable home repair companies nearby via an app called Doctor House. Bitfinder, which was also invested in last month, owns Internet of Things (IoT) technology that can measure indoor air conditions with a sensor. The start-up is receiving a lot of attention from the industry, since the idea of an IoT-based smart home is emerging.
Daum Kakao anticipates that it can create synergy by linking itself with these start-ups and thus increase its investment value in the mid to long term. Its strategy is similar to Google's aggressive acquisition of promising start-ups. Google unveiled its new logo on Sept. 2 to show its focus on the mobile business, going beyond the Internet era.