Top 10 Korean EdTech Startups Transforming Education – Best of 2020

1. SmartStudy

Korean EdTech Startup SmartStudy is the creator of the global kid’s educational hit Pinkfong. They have become so successful not only in South Korea but also in the United States that they are looking to go public in 2020. Since 2010, they have produced videos that featured characters in different languages. Furthermore, these educational videos are available through their mobile apps or they can be watched on YouTube. Their hit song “Baby Shark” alone has over 4.6 billion views on Youtube. In addition, their sales reached over $23 million in 2018 and surpassed $33 million in 2019.

SmartStudy’s plan for 2020 is to become the Pixar of South Korea. They plan to launch an animated TV series based on their PinkFong characters. Furthermore, they are also in works to produce a live musical tour of “Baby Shark” in 2019 with a movie version of “Baby Shark” in 2020.

“If one would have to define us, we would be somewhere between Disney and Sesame Street. Disney provides imagination and entertainment. But in addition to those, we try to each of our viewers about nurturing good values and habits,” said Ryan Seungkyu Lee, Co-Founder of SmartStudy.

2.  Mathpresso

Korean EdTech Startup Mathpresso is the creator of Qanda which is a tutoring app for students that need help with math and science. The app is available in Korean English, Japanese, Vietnamese, and Indonesian. It helps students search for solutions to math problems just by taking a picture of the math problem. Furthermore, users can ask direct questions to school tutors. The queries are then added to the app’s database so that other users can find the solution through the app’s search engine.

Mathpresso has raised over $21 million in funding from Mirae Asset Venture Investment, Legend Capital, InterVest, and NP Investments. For focus for 2020 will be to continue to be active outside of Korea, in countries such as Singapore, Vietnam, and Indonesia.

“Our mission is to provide equal opportunities for education through technology. We plan to bolster our presence in the Asian market beyond Korea and Japan,” said the CEO of Mathpresso, Jongheun Lee.

3.  Riiid

Korean EdTech Startup Riid is an AI tutoring platform that uses machine learning technology. Instead of workbooks and teachers, Riiid has an AI tutor. Therefore it can provide each student with a private AI tutor.  Furthermore, Riiid is continuing to develop its AI technology as a B2B solution called “santA.Inside”. It is an AI-based tutoring engine for the growing global test-prep market. The first application of the engine focused on TOEIC (Test of English for International Communication). TOEIC is a popular test in Korea and it is designed to measure achievement in using English in a business setting. Riiid stated that after 20 hours of training, their product called Santa TOEIC improved a user’s test score by 124 points. Their focus for 2020 will be on the SAT which is a standardized test widely used in the United States.

In addition, Riiid was the first Korean startup to present a research paper on AI technology at the Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NIPS), the world’s top AI conference. They currently hold over 40 registered patents and patent applications.

$18 Million in Series C Funding

Riiid raised over $15 million in Series C funding ($18 million to date) led by Premier Partners, DSC Investment, IMM Investment, D Ventures Private Investment Fund, and DSC Investment, just to name a few.  They will use the funds for R&D and improve sentA.Inside. The goal is for companies to create their own AI educational service brand through sentA.Inside. One of the main products Riiid developed has been Santa TOEIC. It has over 1 million members.

“Riiid will transform the paradigm of the educational industry from a content-centered one to a technology-centered one. By entrusting the operation of complicated AI technologies to us, the educational companies that partner with Riiid will be able to focus their energy and attention on developing outstanding content,” said Riiid CEO, Young-Jun Jang.

Fast Campus was able to secure an $8.3 million for its series B round. The money will help in their plans for their spin-off subsidiary Fast Campus Language which will focus on their Chinese home-study materials. They will also expand to Jongno to go along with their centers in Gangnam and Yeoksam. The reason for Fast Campus’s success has to do with its focus on enhancing foreign language communication skills rather than raising foreign language scores.

Korean Education startup Knowre offers a math educational platform for grades 1 to 11. The startup was acquired by Daekyo who hopes Knowre can become the DreamBox Learning of Korea. How the Knowre platform works is that when a student gets a problem wrong the program will go step by step through the different operational steps to fix the program. Furthermore, their math education software offers game-like features for pre-Algebra, Algebra, and Algebra II. With the help of Daekyo they were able to create the Summit Math program in 2015 for students at Daekyo’s learning centers.

Knowre broke into the US market back in 2014. Now Knowre licenses its software to other educational service providers. Therefore, they have partnered with many tutoring centers across the United States. Knowre also licensed its technology to EBS, Korea’s top educational broadcasting media group. The key feature of Knowre is the software’s algorithm which creates a personalized curriculum for each student based on their strengths and weaknesses. In addition, they have raised over $7 million in funding and are looking to expand into the Chinese market in 2020.

Knowre Math

Knowre Math is a grade 1-12 online supplemental learning for schools and districts. he education startup already partnered with schools and districts to bring Knowre Math to classrooms. It will offer Knowre Success Score which will measure student achievement. This will offer teachers vital data and feedback regarding student learning.

“Knowre Math’s goal is to help teachers build self-efficacy and agency within students. Knowre Math integrates seamlessly into classrooms to help students by modeling the one-on-one interaction between a teacher and a student in order to best support the needs of each learner,” said Co-CEO of Knowre, David Joo.

6.  Classting

Korean Education Technology Startup Classting uses AI deep learning technology and big data to create an education social community platform. Therefore their app allows for easy communication between students, parents, and teachers. The platform supports study management, effective communication, and personalized service that offers tailored information and functions. The Classting app is now a common app in the public education sector in Korea. They currently have over 4.5 million users in over 15,000 schools and educational institutions worldwide.

Classting has partnered with UCLA, Boston College, and the University of Washington on using AI and big data for better-personalized education for students. They have already raised over $5.5 million dollars and is looking to expand into other Asian markets such as Taiwan in 2020.  Furthermore, the Classting app supports 12 different languages and will look to add SEA countries like Malaysia, Indonesia, and Vietnam. They will focus on the Asian market before moving on to the United States and the European market.

“Classting uses IT technology, including Big Data and Artificial Intelligence, to create a new educational service that connects teachers, students, and parents. We will continue efforts to create a more pleasant learning environment and a more reasonable education market as an ed-tech company in Asia and beyond,” said CEO of Classting Cho Hyun-gu.

7. elice

Coding skills are regarded as essential abilities of the 21st century. As technology became a huge part of our lives, technical & digital literacy are key components of competitiveness. Therefore, Korean EdTech startup elice focuses on bringing coding skills to students, job seekers, and employees. The startup provides an online coding platform “elice” and an online learning platform called “elice academy.” Users can select from a wide variety of subjects, including programming basics, data analysis, deep learning and more. What sets the online learning platform apart from traditional learning, is its strong emphasis on interaction. The platform guides students through classes and exercises while analyzing their learning progress. Furthermore, all training sessions offer real-time chats with instructors who check your answers and can respond to questions immediately.

The Founding of elice

The CEO, Kim Jae Won who graduated from KAIST with a Computer Science degree, founded the company in 2015. During his research at KAIST, he saw that students faced a lot of difficulties and limitations in coding classes. Classrooms were crowded and usually lead by only one instructor which made it hard for them to ask questions or receive critical feedback. The learning process was slow due to the lack of interaction and refrained students from enjoying their studies.

Kim introduced his idea of an online learning platform to his fellow students who liked his idea and helped him establish the company. Since then, the company has received recognition and attention from various institutions and universities for its innovative platform. Schools like KAIST, DGIST and Yonsei University have implemented the online learning platform into their curriculum. Additionally, reputable companies like SK, Hyundai Card, Netmarble and many more have been using elice to provide software education to their employees.

After receiving investments from KAIST Ventures and Naver D2 Factory, the business secured a $2.8 million investment from Altos Ventures last year.

8. Eggbun

Korean Education Startup Eggbun focuses on using chatting to teach Korean. Not only will users learn the Korean language but they can also learn about Korean cultures such as K-pop and K-Drama. It offers a real-time chatbot called Lanny that offers vocabulary lists, quizzes, and even step-by-step curriculums. The app is great for beginners as well as advanced language learners. They have over 1 million users from all around the world that are interested in learning the Korean language. Users can learn in English, Japanese, or Chinese. They have raised over $1 million during their seed investment to date.

“It is not enough just to teach a language. Teaching cultural aspects along with the language is very important. We are trying to offer cultural aspects to the current version. We plan to upgrade with more interactive features,” said the CEO of Eggbun, Fernando Moon.

9. Jaranda

Korean EdTech Startup Jaranda is a platform offers one-on-one private teaching for children in Korea. Jaranda uses data analysis to make sure they have the highest quality instructors on their platform. In addition, they have over 17,000 after school instructors called “Jaranda Planners” who teach kids ranging from 4 to 13 years old. Customers arrange a time for the instructor to come to their home for private one-to-one teaching.

Just under 80% of their customers are repeat customers. They were able to get $750,000 in funding from Kakao Ventures and 500 Startups putting their total funding to $2.5 million for their series A round.

10. wemath

Korean EdTech startup the KEII platform are the creators of wemath. Wemath focuses on student-centered learning (peer teaching) for learning math. Their community offers a place for anyone to watch, make, upload, and share his or her own math videos. In addition, they also offer MoTu which is a 1 to 1 video tutoring solution. Their focus moving forward will be to create a VR Creator Studio platform for educators.

HONORABLE MENTION

Gwatop

Korean startup Gwatop offers an app that connects Koreans with professional English native teachers. They select teachers with experience in the areas of English business conversation, OPIc speaking testing, and TOEFL. In addition, they can find Chinese and Japanese tutors that have more than 5 years teaching experience. Gwatop pre-screens all their teachers and the app boasts a 90% user return rate. Gwatop was able to get funding from Neoply. They are now planning on opening an offline center with native speakers and expanding their services to categories such as arts, sports, and IT.

CLASSO

Korean Edtech startup CLASSO offers 1:1 video English tutoring with English and American speakers. In addition, students can learn from a selection of different languages from around the world. Some of these countries include China, Germany, Italy, France, Japan, and Spain. Teachers are paid an average rate of $20 per hour and they can work from their home. They accept students of all ages. Students can speak 1:1 to a teacher straight through their platform.

BeNative

Korean EdTech startup BeNative is a language education platform operated by SMATOOS, Inc. Their BeNative app is free to download on both the App Store and Google Play and it allows users to gain access to their collection of quizzes, study materials, and video lessons.  Users can upgrade to the BeNative Pro (Korea, China) or the BeNative Premium (Japan) service which offers users business English courses. Therefore, their focus is on using correct expressions and terms that real entrepreneurs use on a day to day basis.

Korean Education startup Lighthouse offers a program to help nurture entrepreneurship skills for students in Korea. Lighthouse is run by Lighting Up Ventures. It is a bilingual entrepreneurship training program that was inspired by top Universities like MIT. Their program is known for its hands-on approach to learning. Students will learn how to set up websites from the moment they join the program. While the program is held online, they hold off-line sessions in coworking spaces in Seoul like WeWork. Therefore, students will not only learn how to build their own website, but also how to build a product, sell it, and recruit people to organize a team.

Lighthouse aims to create an entrepreneurship program that will disrupt the Korean startup ecosystem. Their program focuses on teamwork and the ability to collaborate with other entrepreneurs across a wide range of disciplines. Therefore for 2020, Lighthouse looks to partner with universities and institutions that are seeking to train a larger number of students or early-stage entrepreneurs. They have previously worked with Chungbuk Center for Creative Economy and Innovation, Korea Institute of Startup & Entrepreneurship Development and Korea Entrepreneurship Foundation.

Inflearn

Dico

Korean Education Technology Startup Dico is a Korean language service provider for Spanish speakers. They are focused on expanding into Latin America and target users interested in learning Korean. They offer Korean-language materials using K-drama or other K-pop related video content from SBS. Therefore, thanks to their partnership with SBS, they have over 1,000 videos on their platform. Their focus for 2020 will be to get funding from Latin American investors. Their R&D center will still be in Korea but the learning and testing will be done in the Latin American environment.

CODMOS

Korean edtech startup CODMOS is a code learning platform for children. It offers over 500 proven coding learning activities to cultivate problem-solving skills. They offer courses not just for elementary students, but also middle and high school students who want to learn how to code. They have a wide range of levels at an affordable cost.

ROBOTRY

Korean EdTech startup ROBOTRY teaches people about mechanical engineering through moving paper toy robots. They use these paper toy robots to educate children about robotics. ROBOTRY has a wide selection of robot characters that educates children about not only robotics but also manufacturing, design, and problem-solving. Furthermore, they offer lessons on robot/mechanical engineering concepts, machine design, and even the fundamentals of planning.

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