Qualcomm invests in Korean restaurant discovery app

Seoul-based restaurant recommendation service MangoPlate said Monday it has secured 6.7 billion won ($6 million) in funding from a group of global investors led by Qualcomm Ventures, the investment arm of chipmaker Qualcomm.

The consortium also includes Softbank Ventures Korea, and YJ Capital, the venture investment unit of Yahoo Japan.

With the latest investment, the total amount of funding received by MangoPlate so far has exceeded 8 billion won.

“Food-tech is a new industry with great potential. With its investor base and funding to date, we believe MangoPlate is well positioned to become a new icon in Korea’s food-tech industry,” James Kwon, director of Qualcomm Ventures, said in a press release.

The Korean restaurant recommendation app, which made its debut in 2013 in Korea, provides crowdsourced data of must-visit restaurants in the country.

In contrast to other restaurant finder and review apps brimming with advertisements and paid posts, MangoPlate offers customized information through data analysis of reviews and photos shared by people who actually paid visits to restaurants.

“I’m really honored to receive investments from leading global investors such as Qualcomm Ventures, YJ Capital, and Softbank Ventures Korea,” Kim Dae-woong, MangoPlate’s representative director said.

“MangoPlate will continue to enhance its services with additional features such as group dining recommendations in which users would be able to receive customized recommendations for a group of people by calculating common tastes.”

The food delivery and recommendation market has been on the rise with more players jumping on the bandwagon.

Baedal Minjok, a food delivery service, raised 40 billion won in a funding round led by Goldman Sachs last November and food ordering service app Yogiyo attracted investment last year from global investment firms including Insight Venture Partners, which have invested in social networking services Twitter and Tumblr.

By Kim Young-won (wone0102@heraldcorp.com)