South Korean financial regulators announced on Sunday the approval of a 560 billion won (approximately $380.6 million) investment into domestic artificial intelligence startup Upstage. This marks the second direct investment made by the Korea Growth Investment Fund.
The Financial Services Commission stated that the decision was ratified during a fund deliberation committee meeting held on Thursday.
Upstage, established in 2020, is a unicorn startup with a valuation exceeding 1 trillion won. The company focuses on developing AI solutions and large language models. It is the second enterprise to receive funding from this policy-driven fund, following Rebellions Inc., a company that designs neural processing units for AI inference tasks.
Additionally, during the same meeting, the committee approved four other financing proposals. These include a 400 billion won equity investment into an AI computing center construction project in South Jeolla Province.
The Korea Growth Investment Fund was established last year to support startups in strategic sectors such as artificial intelligence, biotechnology, and semiconductors. The government plans to raise up to 150 trillion won from both private and public sources and operate the fund over the next five years.
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