Tech startup Wrtn Technologies raises $18 million for AI push

Wrtn Technologies raised $18.3 million in pre-series B funding from U.S., Japanese, and domestic investors.

Wrtn Technologies CEO Lee Se-young at the Korea Press Center in Jung District, central Seoul [NEWS1]

Wrtn Technologies raised 25 billion won ($18.3 million) of pre-series B funding from U.S. and Japanese investors as well as domestic firms, the Korean AI startup announced Friday.

BRV Capital Management, a new investor, led the round, which also included Capstone Partners, Industrial Bank of Korea and Japan's Z Venture Capital.

For the pre-series B round, the company saw participants from a group of overseas and domestic investors, including the United States-based BRV Capital Management, Capstone Partners, IBK, and Japanese Z Venture Capital.

BRV Capital Management joined in as a new and lead investor in the pre-Series B round.

“With this fund-raising, the company will focus on developing and enhancing products and services to grow as a leading artificial intelligence [AI] service provider,” Wrtn Tecnologies CEO Lee Se-young said.

The company has raised 44 billion won to date after receiving 15 billion won in Series A funding last June.

Wrtn Technologies, which currently has more than 3.7 million subscribers, develops enterprise AI services including conversational search, writing assistants and chatbot tools leveraging the technology. Its AI platform aggregates multiple large language models including OpenAI's ChatGPT.

“As we anticipate an era of global AI service competition, Wrtn aims to provide an AI service platform that offers the most needed assistance to everyone,” Lee said.

BY CHOI HAE-JIN [choi.haejin@joongang.co.kr]