This article was displayed on the ChosunBiz MoneyMove (MM) site at 4:26 p.m. on July 29, 2026.
Artificial intelligence (AI) solution startup PersonaAI has moved to raise a new 20 billion won round. It comes half a year after it received 12 billion won at the end of January at a premoney valuation (valuation before fundraising) of 150 billion won. This time, it is seen as seeking to start preparations for a listing after being recognized at a higher valuation.
According to the investment banking (IB) industry on the 29th, PersonaAI recently decided to receive 20 billion won and is contacting financial investors (FI) such as venture capital (VC). The fundraising is in the nature of a pre-IPO (pre-listing financing), and the company is understood to be directly approaching existing investors and other FIs.
The company's valuation presented is 250 billion won on a premoney basis. Considering that it was recognized at about 150 billion won when it received 12 billion won at the end of January, its valuation jumped about 1.7 times in half a year. Compared with the 2024 valuation (100 billion won) when it received 13 billion won, it is up 2.5 times.
PersonaAI, founded in 2017, is an AI solution company based on Natural Language Processing (NLP) technology. It focuses on building AI contact centers (AICC), including chatbots that apply AI at corporations' customer touchpoints, and is considered competitive for its lightweight Generative AI engine that also runs on corporate intranets (on-premises).
In the industry, PersonaAI's valuation is seen to have risen sharply as it established itself as an AICC build-out partner for major domestic financial institutions. KB Financial Group, Seoul Guarantee Insurance Company, Hanwha General Insurance, and Jeonbuk Bank are among PersonaAI's main clients. Last year's revenue was 11.9 billion won, up about 39% from a year earlier.
Despite being a fundraising resumed after half a year, investor interest is said to be strong. PersonaAI was highly rated for rapidly expanding its business beyond AICC build-outs into on-device and edge AI, based on its proprietary NLP and conversational core engines.
It is also seen as a strength that it has secured information technology (IT) conglomerates such as SK Telecom and Naver Cloud as strategic investors (SI). In particular, as of the end of last year SK Telecom was a major shareholder holding about 8.5% equity in PersonaAI, and PersonaAI also joined the "K-AI Alliance" led by SK Telecom.
PersonaAI plans to use the investment to validate the commercialization of Edge AI technology and pursue a listing next year. It has chosen Mirae Asset Securities as its lead underwriter and is reportedly pushing a project to install an Edge AI engine in a bipedal robot in partnership with a Chinese robotics company.
An IB industry source said, "PersonaAI appears to be trying to secure dry powder just before listing while getting its valuation assessed once by institutional investors to set a reference point for the offer price," adding, "Thanks to the potential applications of Edge AI in robots and defense, investor interest is understood to be high."
Meanwhile, the fact that it is not yet profitable is cited as a burden. PersonaAI posted a consolidated operating loss of 7.9 billion won last year. Although that narrowed from the previous year's operating loss (12.2 billion won), total shareholders' equity was minus 56.8 billion won, and it did not escape a state of complete capital impairment.