This article was displayed on the ChosunBiz MoneyMove (MM) site at 9:01 a.m. on May 8, 2026.
Private equity fund (PEF) manager Cactus Private Equity (Cactus PE) made a minority-stake investment in a startup specializing in artificial intelligence (AI) video analytics. As part of an expansion beyond buyouts (management control acquisitions) into growth capital, it alone bet 3.5 billion won on the early-stage fundraising.
According to the investment banking (IB) industry on the 8th, Cactus PE recently invested about 3.5 billion won in PiaSpace, a startup specializing in AI video analytics. It is a new Series A–type fundraising carried out about two years after PiaSpace's 2024 pre-A round, and Cactus PE participated alone.
PiaSpace's corporate value was set at about 50 billion won on a post-money valuation (value after fundraising) basis. Launched in 2021 as a video analytics solution development startup, it reached this point in just over four years, and Cactus PE completed the capital contribution on the 6th using Cactus Oasis No. 3, a fund dedicated to growth capital investments.
PiaSpace's core pitch is a Multimodal AI video analytics solution that goes beyond simple image analysis to understand both video and text together. It has already developed a B2B software-as-a-service (SaaS) that detects anomalies such as fires, violence, and intrusions in real time, posting about 1.9 billion won in revenue last year.
Cactus PE highly valued PiaSpace's vision-language model (VLM) technology. A VLM is structured so that AI analyzes images to create sentences and directly makes situational judgments based on text, and PiaSpace has already completed technology verification in partnership with KT Telecop and LG Uplus.
Expansion of its business overseas also influenced Cactus PE's investment decision. PiaSpace recently established overseas bases in Singapore, Thailand, and Indonesia. In addition, it successfully completed a technology demonstration of a CCTV-based security infrastructure VLM solution together with Saudi Aramco, the Saudi Arabian state oil company.
PiaSpace plans to use the new funding to advance its VLM technology–based security solutions. The goal is to broaden PiaSpace's B2B VLM SaaS technology, which shows strength in detecting dangerous situations, into B2C areas such as home fire detection and intelligent appliance applications.
An IB industry official said, "PiaSpace has already conducted numerous public and global technology demonstrations, proving its capabilities," adding, "In particular, as the overall PE market is actively seeking AI growth capital targets, PiaSpace, which puts forward a VLM using AI, is an attractive investment."
Meanwhile, Cactus PE is accelerating investments in growth industries such as AI and semiconductors using its growth capital–dedicated Cactus Oasis fund. In particular, after forming the 35 billion won Cactus Oasis No. 3 at the end of last year, it has invested in four companies including PiaSpace in about half a year, deploying half of the committed aggregates.