South Korea
Asia · Pop. 51.8M · #7 startup ecosystem by EV
1 Overview
* 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.
2 Largest rounds
Largest funding rounds in South Korea
A live treemap of $100M+ rounds from the Dealroom API. Each cell is one round into a company headquartered in South Korea, grouped by Dealroom sector.
Largest rounds in South Korea - 2024–2026
3 Startup hubs
Inside South Korea: 1 startup hub, 298 universities
Hubs are sized by combined enterprise value; universities by the startup founders they produced. Hover any point for its numbers; the lists rank hubs by EV and universities by founders.
4 VC investment
How much venture capital flows into South Korea
VC investment into South Korea-headquartered, VC-backed companies, broken down by round size, company location, sector and funding stage.
5 Founder origins
Where South Korea's unicorn founders build
85 founders born in South Korea are behind 53 unicorns; 32% of those were built in the US. Origins are resolved from biography and education history, not current address. Compare with the other origin countries in Asia, ranked by founders or per 1M inhabitants.
6 Location comparison
How South Korea stacks up
Compare South Korea with similarly sized ecosystems in Asia — switch between combined EV, 5-year EV growth, and a growth × size view. Expand the table for the full ranking.
Combined enterprise value of each ecosystem.
Top ecosystems in Asia ranked by combined EV. South Korea's row is highlighted (#4).
| # | Ecosystem | Combined EV | EV growth | Unicorns | VC invested | Tracked startups |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | China | $5.8T | 3.1× | 521 | $34.5B | 25.1K |
| 2 | India | $925B | 7.5× | 131 | $14.1B | 13.7K |
| 3 | Israel | $578B | 5.4× | 133 | $10.6B | 4,860 |
| 4 | South Korea | $433B | 15.4× | 48 | $8.3B | 8,131 |
| 5 | Singapore | $322B | 8.5× | 40 | $4B | 4,063 |
| 6 | Japan | $229B | 5.8× | 21 | $7B | 7,960 |
| 7 | Hong Kong | $178B | 12.4× | 21 | $3.1B | 1,280 |
| 8 | United Arab Emirates | $79.1B | 10.5× | 24 | $3.9B | 1,617 |
| 9 | Indonesia | $64.9B | 5.0× | 12 | $485.4M | 1,221 |
| 10 | Taiwan | $61.9B | 7.6× | 12 | $209.1M | 653 |
| 11 | Türkiye | $52.7B | 16.0× | 10 | $716.6M | 2,072 |
| 12 | Vietnam | $34.4B | 15.3× | 4 | $461.5M | 623 |
7 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.
More data
Explore Dealroom data →Get the full South Korea ecosystem on Dealroom
Live company-by-company deal flow, full cap tables, founder pedigrees, hiring signals and revenue trajectories.