South Korea
Asia · Pop. 51.8M · #7 startup ecosystem by EV
Enterprise value · 2015–2025
South Korea grew 24.7× since 2015
Combined enterprise value of every tracked startup headquartered in South Korea that's still operating today — public and private companies combined, totalled by founding-year cohort.
Adjacent ecosystems by EV
Startup funnel
South Korea's power-law funnel
From the first cheque written to a $10B+ outcome. Each arrow shows what fraction of companies at one stage graduate to the next, tracked by founding cohort.
* C→Unicorn and Unicorn→Decacorn rates are derived from current counts (no founding-cohort data); the four mid-funnel rates use Dealroom's cohort tracking.
Notable companies
Top private companies in South Korea
Up to 20 names per tier from Dealroom's tracked dataset. Decacorns are valued $10B+, unicorns $1B+, thoroughbreds have crossed $100M in revenue.
Academia
South Korea's academic flywheel
Companies founded by university alumni or spun out of research, plus the institutions producing the most founders tied to South Korea.
Vs. similarly-sized ecosystems
How South Korea stacks up
Peers chosen from the same Asia cluster within ±70% of South Korea's combined EV. The scatter plots growth × current size for the wider continent — outliers in the upper-right are ecosystems compounding fastest.
Top overview
Asia ecosystems — combined view
Top ecosystems in Asia ranked by combined EV. South Korea's row is highlighted.
| # | Ecosystem | Combined EV | 5-yr EV growth | Unicorns | VC invested | Tracked startups |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | China | $5.8T | 3.2× | 479 | $33.4B | 24.5K |
| 2 | India | $884B | 7.1× | 125 | $13.9B | 13.3K |
| 3 | Israel | $600B | 5.6× | 128 | $10.7B | 4,762 |
| 4 | South Korea | $439B | 15.6× | 41 | $8.2B | 7,931 |
| 5 | Singapore | $359B | 9.6× | 38 | $3.3B | 3,900 |
| 6 | Japan | $255B | 6.4× | 19 | $4.3B | 7,794 |
| 7 | Hong Kong | $186B | 13.0× | 21 | $3.6B | 1,222 |
| 8 | United Arab Emirates | $79.1B | 10.6× | 21 | $3.9B | 1,553 |
| 9 | Indonesia | $64.8B | 5.0× | 12 | $485.3M | 1,208 |
| 10 | Taiwan | $59.4B | 7.9× | 5 | $209.1M | 621 |
| 11 | Türkiye | $55.7B | 20.7× | 8 | $714.3M | 2,031 |
| 12 | Vietnam | $34.3B | 15.3× | 4 | $461.5M | 616 |
Patent intelligence
South Korea startup IP portfolio: 522.1K patent families
Granted patent families assigned to startups headquartered in South Korea. Aggregated across the country's hub-level filings — Bay Area, Boston, etc. roll up under the United States row, the same way Tokyo and Osaka roll up under Japan.
Premium analytics
What we don't show on this page (yet)
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