Tech fashion startups in Korea are on the rise as more and more brands look to go digital. This article will not focus on online brands as we have a separate article on online Korean fashion startups. The article will focus on tech fashion startups using innovative technology to create new business models in retail and more. Koreans are familiar with purchasing fashion items online without having to go to physical stores. This started even before the pandemic. Recent advancement in technology has changed how Koreans shop and style themselves even more. This is the reason for the growth of tech fashion startups in Korea utilizing new technologies such as Blockchain, AR, AI, and etc.
One of the challenges tech fashion startups in Korea face is funding. There is limited funding for fashion startups in general, as investors in Korea are still skeptical about venturing into this sector. Hopefully, that will change in 2023 as online fashion continues to rise.
“More than half of online shoppers are already purchasing products using mobile devices and the most powerful and most produced contents on mobile are videos,” said CEO of Womanstalk, Kim Kang-il.
OFOTD is one of the few tech fashion startups in Korea creating digital fashion. They launched a digital dress service for digital fashion. With the advancement of the metaverse, the demand for digital clothing for avatars will grow. In addition, in promoting their service, OFOTD was able to get Lee Hyori, one of the top Kpop celebrities in Korea to wear a digital dress and blazer that they made. Therefore, look for this startup to grow even further thanks to NFTs. Digital clothing can be turned into NFTs and can be resold with transparency and authenticity.
Styleshare is one of the top Tech Fashion Startups in Korea. The platform allows users to learn about the latest popular styles and trends. In addition, users can find out new fashion stories, stylings, and shopping reviews. Furthermore, their feed is updated in real-time and can share your fashion tastes with your friends. The platform can be accessed via mobile and desktop. They have millions of users from over 120 countries. In addition, StyleShare has already been covered by major fashion media like InStyle and VOGUE. It is currently the top mobile fashion app. Therefore, it is becoming Asia’s #1 source for not only fashion but beauty as well.
Think of StyleShare as a social network for fashionistas. Therefore, it is a great platform to share and discover new fashion styles. The best part is that users can purchase clothes through the StyleShare store. Currently, StyleShare has over 5.5 million registered users. Their latest funding round brought in $21 million from Stonebridge Capital, KB Securities, and several other Korean investors, bringing their total to over $46 million.
In 2018, StyleShare acquired 29cm, which ranks 3rd on our list. They acquired a 100% stake in the company for $28 million. Therefore, both companies are planning to grow together as strategic partners. This is because StyleShare and 29cm have a different customer base.
“The top priority before launching the company was creating a fashion community and now that is what differentiates us from other fashion platforms,” said CEO of StyleShare, Ja-young, Yoon.
The company was the winner of the POSCO Idea Marketplace Best Startup Award in 2019. They have worked with Hyundai in the past who used their AI system to design a hoodie. They have raised over $2 million in funding to date.
“While production skills were developing, design skills appeared to remain the same in the fashion industry. And as Korea’s fashion industry largely depends on people’s physical labor, there was little room for technology to join. So we thought our skill could contribute to the industry to make a less labor-intensive environment,” said CEO of Designovel, Shin Ki-young.
Through Buja Market, customers can search 900,000 domestic fashion subsidiary materials online. The fashion subsidiary materials market is based on an offline market with a closed distribution environment. Many designers and companies have to spend a lot of time and expense to get information about materials and purchases. Therefore, JONGDAL Lab has constructed a database of online and offline fashion subsidiary materials and provides a service that can search and purchase materials online easily. Now, customers can save time and expense through their service.
YesNow is a fashion tech startup in Korea that provides recommended personal fit based on body and clothing information using AI technology. Their service has been actively introduced to many fashion companies only after 6 months of release. Their focus for 2022 will be to build a big data platform that can connect data and optimize decisions on top of improving business performance.
The main product from YesNow is their AI-based fit advisor called Fit Finder. Fit Finder makes fit recommendations for each part of the clothing. Therefore it ensures an unbeatably accurate prediction based on their patented in-house technology to minimize customer frustration due to the wrong size and boost CVR.
Korean startup Odd Concepts is a visual intelligence and AI fashion styling service provider based on commerce technology. Odd Concept’s PXL is a service that recommends customized fashion products to consumers. They do this by analyzing their taste in the category of fashion. They combine state-of-the-art computer vision and deep learning technology to provide accurate results quickly. Therefore, Odd Concepts uses image recognition and search technology as a cloud-based API service. In addition, they have a team of scientists with vast experience in computer vision applications that help with computer vision consulting. Furthermore, they have raised over $8.5 million from KB Securities, HB Investment, Kiwoon Investment-Shinhan Capital, Korea Development Bank, and SBI Investment Korea.
In 2020, Odd Concepts took over a Singaporean startup called SEACRUZ that focuses on contextual targeting ad systems based on applied machine learning. Therefore, this will be Odd Concept’s first step in its plan to form partnerships with major online commerce players within the APAC region through its verified services.
Deep Tech is quickly becoming a key focus in the global investment landscape, and it…
As machine learning and AI technology continue to advance, businesses all around the world require…
By now, many of us have already been exposed to the world of augmented reality.…
As the world struggles with food security and nutrition challenges, there is growing acknowledgment that…
The future is AI Technology. Top entrepreneurs like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg have been…
Undoubtedly, agriculture is one of the most fundamental industries on our planet. It provides food,…