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"SparkLabs, an accelerator program in South Korea that is bringing a Silicon Valley-like approach to the Asian country's startup ecosystem, showcased its second batch of startups to investors at Demo Day today.\r\n\r\nThe companies are largely based around social and e-commerce initiatives, with\u00A0Eugene Kim, the principal at Sparklabs, saying that they &amp;quot;reflect\u00A0major trends in Asia in terms of what you\u2019ll see in the coming years, such as growth in\u00A0the e-commerce space, new targeted social networks and completely new innovations.\u201D\r\n\r\nSparkLabs belongs to the\u00A0Global Accelerator Network,\u00A0which includes Techstars,\u00A0Australia\u2019s PushStart\u00A0and\u00A0Microsoft\u2019s Azure accelerator in Israel.\u00A0The businesses that the accelerator favor all aim to go beyond Korea\u2019s traditionally inward focus, and move into lucrative markets including the US, China, Japan, and others.\r\n\r\nTo fit its overseas ideals, SparkLabs boasts an\u00A0impressive line-up of\u00A0advisers and mentors -- and a dozen more have joined recently, including\u00A0Sang Cha, who built one of software company SAP\u2019s core platforms, as well as Spindle's Pat Kinsel who recently sold his company to Twitter, and Ty Ahmad-Taylor, who is Head of Smart TV Services at Samsung.\r\n\r\nHere are the eight companies that presented at SparkLabs' latest Demo Day:\r\nDesignplusD (Productivity)\r\n\r\nThe company behind\u00A0MemoZy, which has been the App Store\u2019s number\u00A0one productivity app in 12 countries. It recently moved to a registration-based service with a new &amp;quot;Timeline&amp;quot; feature.\r\n\r\niBabyBox (E-commerce/social network)\r\n\r\nAn example of a targeted social network. The company is behind\u00A0a social marketplace for baby items, which lets mums\u00A0connect, share and browse all types of baby products.\r\n\r\nHeyBread (E-commerce)\r\n\r\nSelling premium organic breads from local bakeries via an online platform is what this startup does. It delivers\u00A0fresh\u00A0bread from handpicked bakeries to customers every morning.\r\n\r\nMangoPlate\u00A0(Discovery/social network)\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nAnother food-related startup. The\u00A0MangoPlate\u00A0app is a\u00A0restaurant discovery service for South Korea's capital city Seoul, which will help users find restaurants based on recommendations from a network of people.\r\n\r\nStyleWiki (Social network)\r\n\r\nYet another targeted social network, but with an added knowledge platform. The app caters to fashion enthusiasts, collecting fashion knowledge to help people share and discover related information.\r\n\r\nLateral\u00A0(Search)\r\n\r\nThe company behind search platform COGO, which automates search sessions -- retrieving, indexing and organizing search data into a visual format.\r\n\r\nZoyi (Marketing)\r\n\r\nThis startup is behind a product called Walk Analytics, which gives insights\u00A0to offline business such as foot-traffic, the duration of a stop at any shop, and engagement data.\r\n\r\nTrakInvest (Finance/social network)\r\n\r\nThe company is launching a social investment platform for\u00A0equities. Users get a phantom cash allocation to kick-start their investment track record, do their research via library resources, and can possibly execute real trades.\r\nIt will be interesting to see how these startups fare, especially outside of South Korea, in the coming months -- as investors decide on their interest level in the companies' ideas that have been pitched.\r\n\r\nHeadline image via Thinkstock, screenshot via MangoPlate"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://thenextweb.com/asia/2013/10/01/korean-accelerator-sparklabs-showcases-social-and-e-commerce-startups-at-its-second-demo-day/>