Millinet Solar – Renewable Energy

When it comes to green growth, few countries have backed up the rhetoric quite like Korea, pledging KRW 107 trillion (USD 90 billion), or 2 percent of its annual GDP, in environment-related industries by 2013.

Combining generous stimulus policies with the high degree of technology cross-over with Korea’s world leading semiconductor and display industries; has prompted many to identify solar as a future star of the Korean economy.

One company that is ready to make hay while the sun shines is Millinet Solar.

Established in December 2005, and commencing production in May 2008, Millinet Solar is Korea’s leading multi-crystalline solar cell manufacturer. Through two production lines, totaling 90MW capacity, the company manufactures 156mm×156mm solar cells, with an average conversion efficiency of 16.2 percent.

High quality control, including color consistency, uniform conversion efficiency, and a low breakage rate, has lead the company to sign long-term solar cell supply contracts with major international industry players throughout Europe and Asia, with overseas customers, making up the vast majority (>95%) of sales.

Ecol Biotech – Biodegradable Plastic

Ecol Biotech Co., Ltd.

Established: 2005

CEO: Lee Jae Sik

Business Area: Eco-friendly polymers

Website: www.ecolgreen.com

Seeking: Financial/strategic investors

Bio-plastic may sound as oxymoronic as diet pizza, but as global awareness of the environmental damage caused by the annual global production of 250 million tonnes of plastic expands, it would be foolish not to capitalize on the economic and environmental benefits obtainable through switching to biodegradable polymers.

Privately-held Korean bio-polymer manufacturer, Ecol Biotech is nobody’s fool.

Established December 2005 as a subsidiary of SK Networks, Ecol Biotech was the first Korean company to localize the production of poly-lactic acid or polylactide (PLA), a 100-percent biodegradable, non-toxic polymer derived from corn starch with the physical properties of plastic.

Spun-off as an independent entity in September 2009, Ecol Biotech has gone from strength to strength, opening a subsidiary in China, and regularly breaking monthly sales records.

TranSono – Clear Communications

Company Name: TranSono, Inc.

Established: 2008

Ownership: Private

CEO: Dominic Lee

Business Area: Embedded software for communication devices

Website: www.transono.com

Seeking: Financial investors, strategic partners

“That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind,” Neil Armstrong stated when first stepping foot on the moon. However, no one back on earth heard the indefinite article — the “a” — rendering the statement contradictory.

In an effort to eliminate such miscommunication, Korean venture company TranSono Inc., has developed background-noise reducing, speech-enhancing embedded software solutions for communication devices such as mobile phones, Bluetooth headsets, hearing aids, car navigators, and military devices.

Established in 2008 as the first subsidiary company launched by a Korean university, TranSono’s major shareholders include Hanyang University Holdings (HYU) and the Korea Development Bank (KDB).

TranSono’s key solution, ElectoVox™, is a noise-reduction and speech-enhancing software technology for transmitting/ receiving communication devices.

Using three patented proprietary algorithms, ElectoVox™ provides a single microphone and software solution that is able to be deployed over a broad range of processors and appliances without the modification or additional hardware costs associated with competing products.

Namusoft – Cloud computing solutions

Namusoft, Inc.

Established: 2001

CEO: John Woo

Sales 2009: KRW 1.0 billion

Business Area: Cloud computing software

Website: http://www.namusoft.kr

Korea-based, cloud computing company Namusoft, Inc. has developed a suite of innovative solutions to improve internal business synergy.

As companies increasingly realize the need for effective and efficient knowledge-base management, control, and transfer, cloud computing has arisen as the viable enterprise solution.

So much so, that in December 2009 the Korean government announced its plan to invest KRW 610 billion ($521 million) into the cloud computing industry, with the aim of quadrupling the domestic market up to KRW 2.5 trillion by 2014, whilst helping raise the country’s share of the global market to 10% over the same time frame.

Focusing on developing solutions for the cloud computing and ECM market, Namusoft’s products, including Enterprise Disk (network drive based document management solution), Enterprise Folder (a web based file share solution), and Enterprise Work (an enterprise Portal solution) are currently being used by some of the nations leading companies.

Major Products:

Enterprise Disk  – enterprise file management system

• Allows companies to manage all enterprise files from the point of creation, seamlessly directing enterprise files from a PC to a company’s managed disk.
• Able to run on propriety solutions such as Windows, Mac OS, SunOS, to the free open source solutions running environments such as Linux, Tomcat, and PostgreSQL
• Can be installed on a single PC or a large server farm.
• Customers include –  Samsung Everland, Samsung Fire Insurance, Hanil electronics, among others.

Namusoft's Enterprise Disk Solution

Meta Biomed – Medical materials & devices

Meta Biomed Co., Ltd.

Established: 1990

Ownership: Public (059210:KS)

CEO: Oh, Suk-song

Sales 2009: KRW 22.89 billion

Business Area: Sutures, Dental, & Bone materials

Website: http://www.meta-biomed.com

Seeking: Strategic investor/Corporate Venture Capital

Founded in 1990, Meta Biomed Co., Ltd. is a Korea based company engaged in the manufacture of medical materials and equipment for biotechnology and dental areas.

Operating under the two business divisions of suture materials and dental & bone,  Meta biomed provides synthetic absorbable surgical braids, monofilaments, cordless obturation systems, electronic apex locators and bone graft substitute materials.

Major Products –

In 2009, Meta Biomed’s Dental and Bone division accounted for 55% of total sales, with major products including;

• Gutta Percha Points – used for root canal obturation
• EQ Master™ – the world’s first gutta percha cordless obturation system
• SmarPex™ – Fully automated electronic apex locator
• ADseal™ – Resin based root canal sealer
• Metachem™ – Adhesive resin cement
• BoneMedik™ – Biocompatible bone substitute based on natural coral
• DM Bone™ – Bio-active bone graft substitute

XRONet – Wireless Broadband Solutions

XRONet Corporation

Established: 2005

CEO: Dr. Jinho Shin / Dr. Will Kim

Sales 2009: KRW 2.91 billion (USD 2.57 million)

Business Area: Mobile Broadband Chipsets

Website: http://www.xronet.com

Seeking: Financial investors

Korean company XRONet (pronounced Kaironet) is a fabless semiconductor company, developing system-on-chip (SoC) solutions for wireless broadband.

Specifically, XRONet develops mobile communication SoCs with ultra low power circuit and advanced wireless communication technologies.

According to the Company –

The highly integrated Baseband and RF chipset raises the bar on the performance to power ratio of Mobile WiMAX chipset currently on the market.

The chipset puts together all the features covering, Mobile WiMAX Wave2 as well as Wave1 and WiBro (commercial Mobile WiMAX service in Korea) in a single chip baseband SoC and a single chip RF IC.

The Company’s communications chip and protocol software solutions offer higher performance, and lower power consumption making broadband access possible on the full range of mobile terminals, from notebooks, PDAs, to Smartphones and car navigation systems. With major customers including leading handset manufacturers Samsung, LG, and Pantech.

Centennial Technology – Water Monitoring & Treatment

Centennial Technology Co., Ltd.

Established: 2000

CEO: Eunhee Kim

Sales 2008: KRW 5.25 billion (USD 4.64 million)

Business Area: Water Treatment & Monitoring Solutions

Website: http://www.centechnology.com

Seeking: Financial investors

The idiom “on tap” is an apt representation of how water is taken for granted in the developed world. However with growing global industrialization and urbanization, water has been termed “the next century’s petroleum.”

Established in 2000, Centennial Technology was a spin-out venture from the Korean Ocean Research and Development Institute (KORDI), lead by a group of scientists and engineers who brought with them considerable expertise in oceanography, electronics and environmental science.

Utilizing their research and development experience in analyzers, automatic data acquisition, computer control and telemetry systems, Centennial Technology designs, develops and manufactures a range of automatic chemical analyzers and samplers, monitoring platforms, and packaged solutions for the on-line monitoring and treatment of industrial processes, water and effluents.

With the vision of creating ecologically sustainable communities, which will integrate urban development with the natural environment, Centennial Technology provides solutions for both developed and developing countries.

The Company’s major products include i-RoboChem™ a state-of-the art packaged water quality monitoring system that provides a durable, low-cost, portable, and selective alternative to the traditional “send-it-to-the-lab” approach.

Expernet – Multimedia search

Expernet Co., Ltd.

Established: 2003

CEO: Jong Kyeong Lee

Sales 2009: KRW 18.12 billion

Business Area: Multimedia search engine, internet security solutions

Website: www.expernet.co.kr / www.vizooo.com

Seeking: Financial investors

Q: What do you get when a nation has the highest internet penetration rate and the longest working hours in the OECD?

A: The most prolific nation of online shoppers in the world

In March 2010, the Nielsen Company conducted a survey of 27,665 Internet users in 55 markets to observe how consumers shop online, 96% of Korean respondents, the highest rate among all countries, had the intent to make a web purchase in the next six months.

Capitalizing on this is Korean enterprise Expernet, a next-generation search and security solution specialist.

Having developed network defense and information protection solutions, Expernet now continues to develop the new business area of multimedia search services, offering solutions in regard to information retrieved by simple search, knowledge search services, and video/multimedia search applications.

Expernet’s new solution – multimedia search – is a content-based information retrieval service capable of retrieving a variety of multimedia contents, including similar item search (SIS), visual image search (VIS), face detection and recognition (FDR), and is even able to perform analysis of moving images.

Vizooo Shopping Gateway for Fashion Apparel

Utilizing their multimedia/visual search technology, Expernet has developed an innovative shopping gateway named Vizooo.

Based on a visual search function,Vizooo, retrieves and displays products from multiple sources, after comparing prices, customers then connect to the relevant shopping site for purchase.

Kentec Energy – Biomass Energy Plants

Kentec Energy Co., Ltd. Established: 1999 CEO: Kim Sung-Chun Sales 2009: KRW 9.1 billion (US$ 7.9 million) Ownership: Private Business Area: Biomass Energy Plants (Waste-to-energy) Website: www.kentec.com Seeking: Financial investors

As countries battle with the challenges of killing the two birds of environmentally-friendly waste disposal and power generation with a single stone, biomass energy plants (BEPs) represents such a metaphorical stone.

Korea is the 10th biggest energy consuming nation in the world, 97% of which is imported, therefore, developing plans for easing this import dependence by expanding the manufacture and spread of new and renewable energy has become a matter of urgency.

With the goal of materializing “Low Carbon Green Growth” as its core vision, the Korean government plans to expand the ratio of new and renewable energies from 2.24% in 2006, to 5% by 2011, and up to 20% by 2050.

Given the lower manufacturing costs, energy production from waste is emerging as the most cost-effective method to realize new and renewable energy.

Shinhan Photonics – Fiber optic equipment

Company Name: Shinhan Photonics Co., Ltd. Established: 1995 Sales 2009: KRW 19.3 billion (USD 16.9 million) Ownership: Private Major Products: Fiber optic network equipment Website: www.shinhannet.com Seeking: Financial investors

Since 1995, Korean company Shinhan Photonics has been providing high quality fiber optic adapters, patch cables and other components for telecommunication service providers, data center equipment manufacturers, fiber optic systems designers and fiber optic network installers.

Optical Fiber Adapter

The Company is an ISO9001, ISO9002, ISO14001, and TL9000 certified manufacturer of IEC, Telcordia, and military specification compliant fiber optic adapters, patch cables and other network equipment.

Shinhan Photonics’ customers include some of the biggest names in the industry such as Ericsson, Telect, along with domestic companies Korea Telecom (KT), and Samsung Electronics.