[StartupRecipe] Investment in top AI startups in Korea surges

Access to the latest Korean startup news and startup database for free

#Weekly Funding Overview

[Oct.23 ~ Oct.27]

The total funds raised by Korean startups of this week is KRW 64.6 Billion.

Company	Industry	Amount	Round	Investors
Moment Studio	Travel content	-		New Born Ventures
Andrieia	Mental Health	-	Seed	SNU Holdings
Air and Water	Fashion	-	Seed	Bass Investment, Fast Venures, Nicetiming, Angel Investor
Medipixel	AI Medical	17 billion	Series B	Premier Partners, Company K Partners, IMM Investment, SBI Investment, IBK Industrial Bank, Daily Partners, Quad Asset Management
Consalad	Game	-	Pre-Series A	New Paradigm Investment
Twelve labs	AI	14 billion		Nvidia, Intel, Samsungnext, Korea Investment Partners
Morae	AI Infra	30 billion	Series B	KT, AMD, Forest Partners, Smilegate Investment
Runupcompany	Entertainment agency	-	Series A	WYSIWYG Studio
Twigfarm	Content	-	Series A	SBS
Connexioh	Fintech	-		The invention lab
Spinai	Medical AI	-	Seed	BUSAN UNITED HOLDINGS
YAHO	Kids Care	-		The Invention lab, Daekyo, Jones&Roket
Triggers	Edutech	-	Seed	Kakao Ventures
Made	3D Printing	2.6 billion	Pre-Series A	DSC Investment, Schumit, ETRI Holdings, Hyundai Group
Noise-X	Sound Absorption	-		PlanH Ventures
Pierrot Company	Refurbished products	-		HGI, Gordon and Partners
Codenamebom	Game	-	Seed	BlissVine Ventures, ENSL Partners
Returnall	Logistics	-	Seed	Korea Investment Accelerator
Sendy	Fright transport	1 billion	Series B	We Ventures
Infinite block	Fintech	-	Grant	TIPS

Major Funding

• The AI infrastructure solution Moreh has secured 30 billion Korean won (22.3 million dollars) in funding from U.S. semiconductor company AMD and others. It specializes in developing enterprise-grade AI cloud solutions and offers a full-stack solution similar to NVIDIA’s software programming platform ‘CUDA’.
• Medical software development company Medipixel, based on artificial intelligence, has attracted an investment of 17 billion Korean won. They have developed a solution that displays narrowed areas in angiographic images as numerical values, automating the entire analysis process for real-time use in stent procedures.
• AI startup Twelve Labs has attracted an investment of 13 billion Korean won from companies including NVIDIA. Established in Silicon Valley and being the first company to receive investment from NVIDIA, Twelve Labs focuses on developing a massive AI model capable of analyzing and understanding images.

#Trend Analysis

Investment in top AI startups in Korea surges

With one in five global startups reaching unicorn status this year being AI companies, it’s no surprise that AI startups are attracting relatively large amounts of funding in Korea. In particular, AI solution platforms and generative AI startups are attracting the most attention from both domestic and foreign investors.

Upstage, Scatterlabs, Twelve Labs, Luton Technology, and More have all received significant funding this year, with some attracting investment from large companies. Notably, image and language model Twelve Labs became the first domestic investment target of Nvidia, while AI infrastructure software company More was selected by AMD for its potential for success in the global market.

In addition to these technology-focused startups, AI startups that are solving real-world problems in industries such as finance, healthcare, content, mobility, and education are also attracting investment. For example, AI audio company Supertone was acquired by HYBE for 45 billion won, while AI-enabled disease diagnosis and prediction services in healthcare and AI learning platforms in education have also been successful.

AI startups are attracting great attention globally, and industrial utilization is accelerating in Korea as AI technology advances. Global investors are increasingly investing in AI startups, and the number of investments in early-stage AI companies is also increasing. AI startups are expected to attract even more attention in the future as they open up new possibilities in various technologies and industries.