Pikurate (CEO Suk-Kue Song) attended the Korea-US Startup Summit, which was held from Sept 20th(Tues) to the 21st(Wed, local time) in Pier 17 in New York, USA.
Pikurate is a startup that was established in 2019 and has been running a knowledge curation platform named after the company, ‘Pikurate’. This is a platform that allows all formats of links, such as text, images, videos, and documents, to be collected and shared. It is receiving attention in the industry for recording a 53% rise per month in monthly activity users (MAU) over the last 6 months, reaching over 40,000 users.
This allows curators and bookmark users to create lists of topics and store research or articles they find in apps and PCs on them. This can be edited at anytime, anywhere, and others can be invited on the lists to do research together. In addition, users who wish to see or consume knowledge content can find and introduce ‘Piks (a collection of links with related topics)’ of certain topics found on the web to their portals to be continued to be recommended similar Piks.
Also, these services are created and provided on the web, making it much easier to provide quick updates than services that require the installation of separate programs. It is possible to backup and synchronize internal data live by connecting to a recently released app to improve user accessibility. Simultaneously being able to connect curators, who are the knowledge suppliers, to consumers, curators to other curators, consumers to other consumers, and maintaining the continuity of knowledge networking are seen as strengths of Pikurate. The variety of information and types of knowledge, the diversity of topics, and the ability to satisfy B2B and B2C are chosen as factors that differentiate Pikurate.
As such, based on the excellence of their service, Pikurate has been able to attract 500 million KRW in Pre-A investments from SmartStudy Ventures this past May, and has been selected for the TIPS program in June. After that, they officially released their global app on August 22nd, expanding their userbase, and their existing PC web version platform is due to have an update in user experience and be translated into English within this month.
A spokesman for Pikurate said, “Our company’s platform considers all curators, who collect links and adds context to make them into knowledge, as our key clients, and we seek to create a cycle of positive feedback where people who need the knowledge the curators created are connected to channels that they search for and are recommended.” They added on that, “We expect that such functions can be connected to SNS, research related companies, MOOC, and other places to be provided to users and help expand our business.”
They went on to reveal that, “We are currently conducting a Series-A bridge round of funding with a scale of 3 million USD. We will secure funds to reinforce our manpower in the fields of technology, business, and marketing, and develop new studio, platform, and link based communities and services to make knowledge into content more smoothly. We will secure multifaceted, global-level technological capabilities this way.”
On the other hand, the Korea-U.S.STARTUP SUMMIT hosted by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups(Minister Young Lee) and supervised by the Korea Institute of Startup & Entrepreneurship Development(Director Yongmoon Kim) and Korea Venture Investment is providing scene of network between South Korean startups and global companies, VC and startups from New York with the nickname Silicon Alley where ecosystem and IT industry are well-developed. Through this event, they are seeking new business models of K-startups and advances into the global market, and promotes domestic investment of global capital. During the event, a corporate PR booth (joint pavilion between large corporation-startup) was set up, and U.S. VC and investment attraction IR, AC, Tech Media, and meetups and seminars were held with companies succeeded to enter the U.S. market.
KOREA – US STARTUP SUMMIT NEWS PAGE : https://url.kr/4cod53