Wrtn Technologies said on the 26th it raised a 100 billion won series C investment. With this funding, Wrtn became the first domestic AI service startup to be valued at 1 trillion won or more. This brings Wrtn's cumulative funding to about 230 billion won.
New investors Coreline Ventures and Eugene Asset Management joined this round, while existing investors Goodwater Capital, Antler Global, Woori Venture Partners, Sui Generis Partners, Korea Development Bank, and Capstone Partners also participated.
OOC, an AI entertainment content platform Wrtn launched in North America in May, surpassed 10 billion won just three months after launch. The company said overseas revenue has outpaced domestic revenue and projected this year's total revenue will exceed 200 billion won (471 billion won last year).
Wrtn in July officially launched a user committee composed of experts in AI ethics and philosophy, cognition and psychology, and law to strengthen user protection and safety. It also took part in the effort by the Korea Internet Self-governance Organization (KISO) to draft self-regulatory guidelines for AI character chatbot services.
Lee Se-young, Wrtn's chief executive, said, "As a result of establishing ourselves over the past five years as Korea's leading AI service corporations and proving global competitiveness, we were able to successfully complete this investment," and added, "We will focus on global expansion and upgrading our services to meet market expectations, and grow even faster as safe and reliable AI service corporations."