Era of 100 Trillion KRW in AI Investment: Korea Builds Investment Ecosystem for World-Class Physical AI Startups

As the era of 100 trillion KRW in AI investment begins, an investment ecosystem is being built in Korea for world-class domestic startups leading the Physical AI market. 
 
KGround Ventures, a deep-tech commercialization-focused venture capital firm and operator of the Scale-Up TIPS program, announced on the 8th of July that it has established the “K-Physical AI · AI Convergence Startup Alliance” in collaboration with domestic and international venture capital firms, local governments, and major associations. The goal is to create an investment ecosystem supporting the global expansion of AI convergence and on-device AI startups.
 

[Nam-Hoon Cho (second from left, front row), CEO of KGround Ventures and planner of the AI Alliance, with the co-chairs of the K-Physical AI Council (Seok-Jin Yoon, former president of KIST; In-Suk Han, Director of the K-Bio Lab Hub; and Nam-Hoon Cho) and participating startups.Photo provided by KGround Ventures]

Mr. Cho, CEO of KGround Ventures and organizer of the AI Council, stated:
“From the perspective of technological sovereignty, we need sovereign AI. But in order to protect our technological sovereignty and generate real results in the global market, we urgently need a strategy to build value chains through the convergence of deep tech companies—based on Korea's core industries—and AI.”
 
He emphasized that “This will enable mutual validation of technologies and the creation of viable markets.”

He further added, “Deep tech companies with excellent technology and intellectual property (IP) should not be overly reliant on POCs (Proof of Concept) with large corporations. Instead, it is important that they commercialize converged AI technologies and IP applicable across industries within ecosystems developed in collaboration with support agencies and investors.”
 
Cho concluded that “Korea already leads the world in technology competitiveness in deep tech fields such as semiconductors, manufacturing, defense, bio, and medical. Based on these strengths, we must build an AI convergence startup investment ecosystem centered on support agencies and investors to maximize synergy with sovereign AI.”
 

[Participants of the MOU signing for joint development of AI logistics robots (from right): Sam-Yun Jung, CEO of Hypervisual AI; Dong-Gyong Kim, CEO of THIRA Robotics; Woo-Jin Jun, CEO of WIM; In-Suk Han, Director of the K-Bio Lab Hub; Seok-Jin Yoon, former President of KIST; and Nam-Hoon Cho, CEO of KGround Ventures.Photo provided by KGround Ventures]

Meanwhile, the event held on Friday, July 4 at Changjo Agora featured participation from several next-generation AI technology startups, including HyperVisual AI Inc. (CEO Sam-Yoon Jung), which is developing a GPNPU for on-device AI; Daton Co., Ltd. (CEO Dong-Hyun Kim), which owns a proprietary RBM (Restricted Boltzmann Machine) neural network model and is developing native LLMs and data center AI Ops; THIRA Robotics Co., Ltd. (CEO Dong-Gyong Kim), a company developing autonomous logistics robots; and WIM Inc. (CEO Woo-Jin Jun), a provider of AI control solutions for physical AI. Also in attendance were companies achieving results in AI convergence businesses in the bio, healthcare, and mobility sectors, including Qgenetics Co., Ltd. (CEO Mun-Seog Chang), Nemesis Co., Ltd. (CEO Sung-Ho Wang), and Yellowknife Inc. (CEO Han-Sung Lee).
 
Notably, THIRA Robotics, HyperVisual AI, and WIM signed an MOU for joint development of next-generation AI logistics robots. They agreed to collaborate on market-driven joint R&D, investment attraction, global IP filings, and marketing through rapid decision-making and feedback processes.
 
In addition, the launch event for the alliance saw active participation from global experts in AI convergence industries, including:
ﾷ Seok-Jin Yoon, former President of the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST)
ﾷ In-Suk Han, Head of the K-Bio Lab Hub Project Group
ﾷ Jong-Yun Kim, Head of the Venture Growth Center at Incheon Technopark (Incheon TP)
ﾷ Young-Chul Yoo, CEO of Kairos Ventures
ﾷ Yoon-Chul Lim, CEO of Technovalue
ﾷ Dr. Sang-Min Lee of SambaNova, a Silicon Valley-based AI semiconductor company
ﾷ Chi-Won Han, CEO of IPS Patent Law Firm
 
Together, they declared the launch of the “AI Alliance SHIFT”, aiming to create global outcomes in the AI convergence industry, including physical AI. Former KIST President Seok-Jin Yoon, In-Suk Han of the K-Bio Lab Hub, and Nam-Hoon Cho, CEO of K-Ground Ventures, were appointed as co-chairs of the alliance. With the goal of connecting to the Silicon Valley investment ecosystem, they pledged to establish a representative AI consortium for Korea.
 
Separately, K-Ground Ventures plans to form a global AI IP fund to invest in AI convergence technologies and physical AI companies and intellectual property (IP). In collaboration with global investment firms such as Plug & Play, a renowned Silicon Valley accelerator with an extensive international investment network, they intend to actively build a global ecosystem to nurture AI convergence global enterprises spanning physical AI and bio-healthcare.
  

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