Pikurate, under CEO Suk-Kue Song, attended the Korea-US Startup Summit, held at Pier 17, New York, USA from Tuesday, September 20th to Wednesday the 21st. Insights into their enlightening service can be heard in an interview with Leo Thevenet, CEO of Lecafedugeek, in a brief interview on the subject of the startup.
Pikurate solves shortcomings of research networking
Pikurate, a startup established in 2019, runs a platform for curated knowledge of the same name. It contains all formats of links, such as text, documents, videos, and images, which are then collected and distributed. The company has recently been the subject of increasing interest, as it has been able to record a 53% rise per month in monthly activity users over the course of the past six months, reaching more than 40,000 users.
Users can curate and bookmark research, related articles and create lists of topics for themselves or with a partner. To make research easier for others, users can share and access so-called “Piks”, a collection of links belonging to the same topic, on their portal and be recommended similar sources.
An added benefit of the service is that it is accessible on the web, obviating the need for software installation and making updates quick. Additionally, backups and synchronization of internal data is possible live by means of connecting to a recently released application.
The greatest merit of Pikurate is the conservation and passing on of knowledge within the network the service provides. It can connect curators to those wanting to research, curators to other suppliers of information, and researchers to each other, satisfying both B2B as well as B2C users with an array of knowledge of any topics.
Based on this merit, Pikurate has successfully attracted 500 million KRW in Pre-A investments from SmartStudy Ventures in May, and was selected for the TIPS program in the following month.
The App was launched globally on August 22nd, with updates planned for this month concerning user experience for the existing PC web version, as well as an English translation.
A Pikurate spokesperson explained that all curators assembling knowledge are considered key clients, and that positive, constructive interaction between curators and those seeking knowledge is desired.
Development in terms of cooperation with social networking services, companies specializing in research and massive open online courses could help build and further the business.
Currently, a Series-A bridge round of funding is being conducted, with a scale of 3 million USD. When funds are secured, they are planned to be invested into manpower for the development of technology, business, marketing, platforms, and other services. With this, Pikurate hopes to achieve the technological means necessary to become a global-level business in the future.
