00:02you're listening to ai prism from seoul economic daily if you're building in deep tech defense
00:08quantum space bio korea's government just signaled it wants to be your investor not just your grant
00:16giver a new special law for future security innovation companies could be law before the
00:21end of this year meanwhile curly's earnings show consumer tech ipos can still work if the numbers
00:28back it up and in the crowded fortune telling app market the winners aren't the ones with the best
00:34ai they're the ones with the best content it's thursday august 13th let's look at what this means
00:40for startups and entrepreneurs in korea korea's government has mostly acted as a grant giver for
00:46r and d leaving early stage risk to private vcs who've grown cautious amid tighter markets at the
00:54same time global competition in dual-use technology drones defense ai quantum space is accelerating
01:02pushing soul to look at models like the us's inqtel and companies like palantir and anduril
01:09consumer tech meanwhile is proving that differentiated content and clear profitability
01:15not just novelty are what get startups to a real ipo track here's what the numbers show the special act
01:22on future security innovation companies aims to pass the national assembly this year with
01:27implementation targeted for as early as next year's second half by compressing the usual one-year
01:33rulemaking period to six months the government named drones and robotics defense ai and semiconductors
01:41sensors and future materials space and aviation and cyber security and quantum communications as its
01:48five priority dual-use fields seoul set a target of building five companies worth over one trillion won
01:55and 50 companies with over 100 billion won in revenue by 2030 10 trillion won over five years the r
02:03and d budget
02:04earmarked for critical minerals and components under the government's separate seven seed plan will flow
02:10through joint public private investment vehicles where the state takes equity stakes rather than just handing out
02:16grants curly posted 27.4 billion won in operating profit for the second quarter a 20-fold jump from a
02:24year
02:25earlier on revenue up 27 percent to 734.8 billion won 124 million combined monthly active users tallied across
02:36five ai-enabled fortune-telling apps last month underscores how differentiated content not raw ai capability
02:44is now the competitive edge in that category so what does this mean for startups and entrepreneurs in
02:50korea earlier we said korea's government wants to be your investor in deep tech here's what that actually
02:57means for you if you're building in defense ai quantum space or advanced bio direct equity investment and a
03:05compressed six-month regulatory timeline could arrive well before 2027 the lesson from curly and the
03:12fortune-telling apps is the same for any sector investors and users alike are now rewarding
03:18businesses that prove real margins or genuinely differentiated experiences not ai as a checkbox
03:25feature if your startup sits outside these five priority fields the message is less encouraging
03:30funding and policy attention are visibly concentrating around dual-use tech and proven profitability consumer
03:38plays here's what to watch first whether the special act clears the national assembly before year end
03:44which would start the six-month countdown to implementation second the launch structure of
03:50korea's in qtel style venture arm now being set up under the korea venture investment corporation third
03:57curly's next steps toward an ipo following a may funding round that valued the company at 2.8 trillion won
04:04that's today's ai prism founders this episode was produced with ai assistance based on seoul economic
04:12daily reporting and reviewed by a human editor ai prism is a juan ifra award-winning series
04:18we'll be back tomorrow you've been listening to ai prism from seoul economic daily
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