KakaoBank and Kakao Pay, which are set to go public only seven days apart, each compared themselves to a Brazilian financial technology firm for their valuations, their initial public offering applications showed Tuesday. The companies last week submitted their applications to Korea Exchange, the country’s stock market operator. KakaoBank said it plans to go public on Aug. 5 while Kakao Pay set its IPO date for Aug. 12. In their IPO applications, KakaoBank compared itself to four over

Kakao Pay set the date for its initial public offering for the first week of August, immediately trailing the much anticipated listings of Krafton and KakaoBank. On Friday, Kakao Pay said it had submitted its IPO application to the country’s stock operator, Korea Exchange. The financial technology arm of mobile giant Kakao said it seeks to raise up to 1.6 trillion won ($1.4 billion) when it goes public Aug. 4-5. Kakao Pay’s listing will immediately follow the mega IPO of game m

South Korea’s internet-only banks are battling to secure top talents as they prepare to take on their next big challenges -- a public listing for KakaoBank and the official launch of Toss Bank. KakaoBank said Thursday that it had exceeded 1,000 employees as of the end of June, more than doubling the workforce of 390 it had in 2017 when it launched. The company is preparing for its initial public offering, which is expected to raise more than 2 trillion won ($1.77 billion). Toss Bank a

South Korea’s four major cryptocurrency exchanges have decided to launch a joint venture ahead of the upcoming implementation of domestic and global anti-money laundering regulations, the companies announced Wednesday. The heads of the four exchanges -- Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone and Korbit -- got together Tuesday and signed a memorandum to create the joint venture, which will develop a system that will help them comply with the “travel rule.” The travel rule is a global standa

Shares of Hybe, the South Korean entertainment agency behind the hugely popular boy band BTS, plummeted more than 7 percent on Tuesday after a major investor, STIC Investment, unloaded its holdings via a block deal. Before closing down 7.37 percent to 289,000 won ($256), Hybe’s shares dropped by as much as 8.17 percent to 286,500 won on Tuesday. South Korea’s leading private equity fund STIC Investment sold 2.86 million shares, or 7.57 percent of the total shares in Hybe, a regu

KakaoBank, the country’s second internet-only lender, said on Monday that it would raise up to 2.5 trillion won ($2.2 million) in its initial public offering. The banking arm of mobile giant Kakao Corp. will offer a total of 65.45 million new shares at an indicative range between 33,000 won and 39,000 won per share through its upcoming debut on August 5, the IPO application filed with the Korea Exchange showed. The offering prices put the company’s market capitalization somewhere

For decades, X-rays have been mostly used for medical purposes such as checking for bone fractures, pneumonia and breast cancer. South Korean entrepreneur Gihm Se Hoon, however, uses the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) for air purification and sterilization, which has become an important technology amid worries over particulate pollution, and of course, floating bacteria and viruses, such as the coronavirus. The founder and CEO of aweXome Ray and his fellow scientists have commercialized

KaKakaoBank, South Korea’s leading mobile-only bank, said Sunday that it would join forces with industry partners to launch a credit scoring service specialized in mom-and-pop stores as a means to expand loans for low credit holders. The lender will be a major shareholder in a new credit-scoring company, with a 33 percent stake. Korea Credit Data -- provider of Cash Note, business management software for small and medium-sized businesses that has 800,000 users -- will own 43 percent.

Viva Republica, operator of financial technology app Toss with more than 20 million registered users, said Wednesday it is considering an initial public offering in 2025, hinting at a possible market debut in the US. “We‘re not in a hurry and we will consider an IPO in earnest three years down the road, and could go public around 2025,“ said Lee Seung-gun, founder and CEO of Viva Republica, adding that the IPO could take place either in Korea or overseas. The company expe

Upbit, South Korea’s leading cryptocurrency exchange, said on Monday it would take legal action against PicaProject, which accused the exchange of misusing its coins to prompt a delisting. PicaProject’s digital coin Pica was among 24 digital tokens that Upbit removed from its platform on Friday. In response, PicaProject accused the exchange of misusing the funds to the tune of 5 million Pica coins intended for marketing events when it went public in January this year. According

Coming under increasing pressure from financial regulators, local cryptocurrency exchanges have hastily delisted dozens of digital coins, but the removals create negative impact on investors, experts said on Friday. Since Upbit announced its decision to discontinue the trading of five coins on June 11, two more exchange - Bithumb and Coinbit - joined the move with sudden delisting and investment warnings. “Inadequate digital tokens certainly have to be removed from the market but hasty d

The regulatory Financial Services Commission on Thursday said that it will add detailed measures to the legislation governing cryptocurrency exchanges in an effort to tame their attempts at price fixing. Cryptocurrency exchanges will be banned from handling digital tokens issued by themselves or affiliated people, according to a pre-announcement of the revisions made to the enforcement decree of for the Specified Financial Transaction Information. Executives and employees of an exchange are ba

The South Korean entertainment agency behind the global sensation BTS saw its market valuation exceed 10 trillion won ($8.95 billion) for the first time, as the boy band’s new single “Butter” swept global charts. After closing at 282,000 won per share on the nation’s main bourse Kospi Monday, Hybe’s market valuation exceeded 10 trillion won and continued its winning streak on Tuesday rising 2.48 percent to 289,000 won at close. The benchmark Kospi, the country&ls

KB Asset Management announced Monday that it has launched the industry’s first metaverse fund. KB Asset Management said it will invest in 30 to 50 stocks after considering 200 to 300 stocks in South Korea, the US, China and Japan that meet the investment conditions. The US stocks will account for 70 percent, the highest proportion of any country, while hardware and platforms will make up 30 percent each. The fund will be investing in Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, Autodesk, NVDIA, Unity So

Digital coins that were flagged for delisting and given warnings by South Korea’s largest digital asset exchange Upbit plunged over the weekend as financial regulators tightened its grip on the cryptocurrency market. The double-digit plunge in prices came after Upbit on Friday announced that it planned to halt the trading of five digital tokens while issuing “investment warning” on 25 cryptocurrencies. Maro, Paycoin, Observer, Solve.Care and Quiztok will be delisted from th

An official green light given to the insurance unit of Kakao Pay and three peer-to-peer companies will pave the way for the country’s innovation in finance, industry experts said Thursday.  The Financial Services Commission has given a preliminary approval of Kakao Pay’s insurance subsidiary as an online-only insurance firm, the regulator announced on Thursday. Kakao Pay will become the country’s first digital-only general insurance company. A digital-focused insurance

Toss Bank on Wednesday received final approval from the Financial Services Commission to operate as the nation’s third mobile-only bank. Now that it has the green light, Toss is set to jump into South Korea’s fast-growing online banking market, currently dominated by KakaoBank and K bank. Toss Bank -- backed by Viva Republica, the operator of fintech app Toss -- will officially launch as early as September. Toss Bank will operate within the existing Toss app to take advantage of

South Korea’s market regulator, the Financial Services Commission, is set to decide on Wednesday whether to approve the operations of banking and insurance units developed by financial technology companies, amid mixed expectations for their impact on a market long dominated by traditional institutions. At its monthly meeting, FSC will decide whether to approve Toss Bank and Kakao Pay’s digital-only insurance subsidiary. If approved, Toss Bank will become Korea’s third mobile

Just as people are getting used to the concept of cryptocurrencies, new terms like “DeFi,” nonfungible token and metaverse have become the talk of the town. While an increasing use of NFTs opens up a wide range of virtual services in the metaverse, investors are seeing huge business opportunities from these technologies that could reshape the digital world. And some are moving quickly to back novice blockchain startups with fresh ideas and potential. The Korea Herald met Ethan Ki

The Financial Supervisory Service has been designated to man the main control tower overseeing the country’s burgeoning virtual asset market, putting an end to months of discussions on who would take charge, while major cryptocurrencies fell over the weekend. In an announcement on Friday, the government delegated the FSS, the country’s financial regulator, in charge of virtual assets while the Ministry of Science and ICT will take the helm in leading the country’s blockchai