Bunker Kids, a South Korean company that operates AI character chat service WHIF, has secured KRW 15 billion (approximately $11 million) in Series A funding.
The round drew participation from eight investors: Kolon Investment, Kakao Ventures, Mirae Asset Capital, We Ventures, BSK Investment, Murex Partners, Kret Ventures, and Samchully Investment. Kret Ventures had previously backed Bunker Kids with a KRW 2 billion investment, and Kakao Ventures has now supported the company across multiple rounds going back to a KRW 2 billion Series A investment in 2022, when Bunker Kids was still operating a personalized health-meal delivery service before pivoting to its current AI chat business.
Founded in June 2019 and based in Busan, South Korea, Bunker Kids is led by CEO Jeong Seung-wan and operates WHIF, an AI interactive content platform where users chat with AI characters and build relationships whose narratives branch and expand based on the choices they make. The service blends conversational AI with story-driven content, positioning itself less as a simple chatbot and more as an evolving, choice-driven narrative experience. WHIF has shown rapid growth since launch: monthly revenue has grown roughly 1,000-fold in the year since its release, with paying users averaging 217 minutes of daily engagement on the platform. Overseas revenue now accounts for about 40% of the company’s total sales, reflecting early traction in international markets alongside its domestic user base.
Bunker Kids plans to use the new capital to develop multimodal content — expanding into image and video generation alongside its existing text-based chat experience — while upgrading its service for individual overseas markets and hiring across all functions. The company aims to raise the share of overseas revenue to more than 60% of total sales by the end of the year, doubling down on international expansion as a core growth driver.
