As investment fever in robot startups continues, whether they have secured industries and customers for real-world adoption is emerging as the standard that separates corporate value. Even with high technological capability, commercialization is difficult if the use case is unclear, so attention is focusing on corporations that have staked out fields with high automation demand, such as welding, golf course management, and construction sites.
On the 3rd, according to the startup industry, physical artificial intelligence (AI) robot startup Diden Robotics reportedly drew investment interest from more than 20 venture capital firms (VCs) during a new funding round worth 100 billion won. Of that, 40 billion won will come from existing investors, and multiple VCs have expressed intent to invest in the remaining 60 billion won. Diden Robotics is pushing its business with the industrial quadruped robot "Diden Spider" as its flagship product.
If the focus used to be on robot technology, lately attention has shifted to where robots will be used. Diden Spider uses quadruped locomotion and magnet-based adhesion so the robot can move across interior walls and ceilings of ships to perform welding, inspection, and repair. It has conducted pilots with the three major shipbuilders in Korea, and some have said they will buy the product once it is released. The prospect that product launch will lead to sales and revenue is the backdrop for the strong fundraising.
ExUp, which develops golf course management robots, also found business opportunities in specific use cases. ExUp started as an in-house venture at LG Electronics(066570) and spun off in 2024. It developed "Chaeum," an autonomous driving robot that finds and restores damaged areas of golf course turf. It is expanding beyond golf courses into agriculture, which has similar environments and needs automation.
These corporations are being evaluated as cases of applying robot technology to industrial sites where labor shortages are worsening. Welding is a representative field where it is difficult to secure skilled workers. Wages are low and labor intensity is high. In shipbuilding in particular, reluctance among skilled workers who left during past downturns to return is deepening. Golf course management also requires high labor costs, and related personnel are decreasing. Robots are emerging as a way to raise productivity and replace workers who have left.
Overseas, robot corporations specialized for industries with severe labor shortages are also drawing attention. Dutch startup Monumental has developed robots that carry and stack bricks on construction sites and is operating them in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Targeting the construction industry's problems of a shortage of skilled bricklayers and low productivity, it has deployed robots to build more than 100 dwellings as well as schools and hotels. On the strength of clear use cases and on-site results, it also raised a $32 million series B in Jul., worth about 44 billion won.
Going forward, investment in robot startups is expected to hinge more on customer adoption potential and cost-cutting effects than on technological capability. People in the investment industry, including VCs and accelerators, said, "Since technology has already reached a considerable level, if the market that will lead to actual revenue is unclear, follow-on funding will become more difficult," and noted, "Investment is likely to concentrate on corporations that perform tasks difficult to handle with the existing workforce and prove the adoption effect with numbers."