Korean Startups in New York: A Week with Elpis Labs
And that's a wrap on an amazing week in New York with seven incredible Korean founders.
Over the week, the group took part in workshops, investor and corporate matchmaking, founder conversations, and visits across the NYC innovation ecosystem, alongside meetings with investors, corporate innovation leaders, operators and fellow founders. We closed with a showcase event that brought the founders together with investors and partners from across New York.
We ran the week with our partners at TAP Angel Partners and the Seongnam agency.
Key takeaways
Seven Korean startups spent a week in New York with Elpis Labs, TAP Angel Partners and the Seongnam agency.
The program combined workshops, investor and corporate matchmaking, founder conversations and ecosystem visits.
Founders met investors, corporate innovation leaders, operators and other founders, and closed the week with a showcase.
The real work starts now: follow-ups, pilots and partnerships.
What a week in the New York startup ecosystem looked like
The week was built around the meetings that matter for a Korean startup entering the U.S. market:
Workshops on what changes when you sell, raise and partner in the U.S.
Investor and corporate matchmaking, with 1:1 meetings with investors and corporate venture capital (CVC) teams.
Founder conversations with operators and founders who have already built in New York.
Ecosystem visits across the New York corporate innovation ecosystem.
A closing showcase bringing the cohort together with investors and partners from across the city.
As we've written before, demo days have moved from pitching to strategic conversations. This week worked the same way: most of the value came from conversations that started in a meeting room and carried on at the showcase.
Meet the seven Korean startups
DASIS repreented by Junghoo Kim.
Mago / IMAGO repreented by Hyunwoong Ko.
CURI AI / Blackhoods repreented by Jesse E Lee.
ModigenceVision repreented by Daehee Kim. A Seongnam-based company building 3D vision technology, including 3D and ToF cameras and an integrated 3D vision platform for manufacturing and robotics.
VISIONSPACE repreented by Wonseok Choi. Physical AI-based simulation for industrial automation: live simulation, digital twins and virtual-to-real sync, working toward an automation OS controlled by data rather than manual operation.
ALL.AI repreented by Yong-Gak Kim.
BrainVentures repreented by Wonhoi Kim. An AI natural language processing company from the Pangyo Startup Zone, with products including AI multilingual translation, automatic webtoon OCR and translation, and AI video content translation.
It was a pleasure getting to know every one of these founders, learning more about what they're building, and watching so many new conversations and relationships develop over the week.
Why New York for Korean startups
Korean founders often look at the U.S. through the lens of Silicon Valley. New York offers something different: corporate headquarters, financial institutions, media and retail companies, and their venture arms, all within a few subway stops of each other. For a startup that wants enterprise customers and pilots, that density turns a week of meetings into a real pipeline. Our piece on how corporate venture teams find startups explains what those teams look for.
This week is part of a longer line of Korea work at Elpis Labs, including the KSC Deeptech program in New York and its fall batch. For the investment side, see our look at Korean venture capital trends.
What comes next: follow-ups, pilots and partnerships
A program week is where relationships start, not where they end. Now come the follow-ups, pilots and partnerships, and hopefully a few good reasons for everyone to come back to New York very soon. For founders working toward a first corporate deal, our guide on how to get a pilot opportunity with a corporation is a good next read.
Thank you
A big thank you to our partners at TAP Angel Partners and the Seongnam agency, and to all the partners, speakers, mentors and hosts who made the week possible. Thank you to our investor and CVC guests and to everyone who hosted sessions, meetings and conversations. We're grateful to everyone who shared their time, experience, advice and networks with the founders.
And the biggest thank you goes to our founders.
Frequently asked questions
What did the Korean founders do during the week in New York?
Seven Korean founders took part in workshops, investor and corporate matchmaking, founder conversations and visits across the New York innovation ecosystem. They met investors, corporate innovation leaders, operators and other founders, and the week closed with a showcase event that brought them together with investors and partners from across New York.
Which Korean startups took part?
Seven companies: DASIS (Junghoo Kim), Mago / IMAGO (Hyunwoong Ko), CURI AI / Blackhoods (Jesse E Lee), ModigenceVision (Daehee Kim), VISIONSPACE (Wonseok Choi), ALL.AI (Yong-Gak Kim) and BrainVentures (Wonhoi Kim).
Who organized the program?
Elpis Labs ran the week in New York with its partners TAP Angel Partners and the Seongnam agency, together with speakers, mentors, hosts, and investor and corporate venture capital guests from across the New York ecosystem.
What happens after the program week?
The week is where relationships start. Afterwards come follow-ups with the investors and corporate teams the founders met, pilot discussions, and partnerships. Elpis Labs stays involved after the founders fly home, so the conversations from New York can turn into pilots and deals.
How can a corporate or investor meet Korean startups in New York?
Elpis Labs runs cross-border programs that bring Korean and other international startups to New York for matchmaking with investors and corporate innovation teams. Corporates and investors who want to meet a cohort, host a session or scout for pilots can contact the Elpis Labs team through elpislabs.com.
Work with us
If you're a corporate innovation team or investor and want to meet the next cohort, host a session or scout for pilots, explore our startup scouting and corporate innovation work. Agencies and accelerators can see the programs we build with government and public-sector partners. Founders can start with our U.S. market entry programs for startups, or contact Elpis Labs directly.
About Elpis Labs
Elpis Labs is a corporate innovation and U.S. market-access firm connecting corporations, startups, investors, and public-sector organizations across global innovation ecosystems.
We help corporations discover emerging technologies, scout high-potential startups, and design pilot and innovation programs. For international startups and public-sector partners, we build accelerator, soft-landing, trade-mission, and market-entry programs that create practical pathways into the U.S. market.
With a strong B2B focus and global network, Elpis Labs specializes in innovation matchmaking, technology scouting, cross-border market entry, and ecosystem development.
Our Korea work in New York includes this week with TAP Angel Partners and the Seongnam agency and the KSC Deeptech programs for Korean startups. Elsewhere, we run cross-border programs with partners from Taiwan, Italy, Chile and Uzbekistan.
New York corporate innovation · U.S. market entry for startups · Government startup accelerator programs · Contact Elpis Labs
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