MakinaRocks, an industrial specialized artificial intelligence (AI) corporations, said on the 3rd that it received preliminary review approval from the Korea Exchange (KRX) for a KOSDAQ listing.
MakinaRocks plans to complete the remaining listing procedures with its lead manager, Mirae Asset Securities, and conduct an initial public offering (IPO) in the first half of this year. In the technology evaluation conducted in Nov. last year, MakinaRocks received an "A" grade from both NICE D&B and e-Credible, recording an overall "A-A."
Founded in Dec. 2017, MakinaRocks is an AI corporations that supplies high-performance vertical AI specialized for core industrial sites such as manufacturing and defense. Early in its founding, global manufacturing corporations including Applied Ventures, LG, SK and Naver participated in its Series A investment. Since then, it has attracted a total of 53 billion won in cumulative investment, centered on strategic investors (SI) such as GS, Samsung, POSCO and Hanwha.
MakinaRocks has supplied more than 100 vertical AI solutions to global manufacturing corporations such as Doosan, Samsung, Hyundai, Hyosung, LG, GS and SK, as well as to the Agency for Defense Development (ADD) and the Navy 1st Fleet Command. Based on this, it said that last year it recorded more than double the order intake compared with the previous year.
MakinaRocks' core engine is its independently developed AI operating system (AI OS), "Runway." Runway supports the entire cycle from AI model development to deployment and operations (MLOps). MakinaRocks is currently active as an elite team (Upstage consortium) in the government's "independent foundation model" project and as the lead corporations in the "Manufacturing AX Alliance." Resources secured through this listing will be focused on advancing Runway's technology and expanding into global markets.
Yoon Sung-ho, CEO of MakinaRocks, said, "By passing the scrutiny of the rigorous capital market, we will add synergy to Korea's manufacturing and defense competitiveness and grow into corporations that leads the global vertical AI market."