• funding Stage : Pre-Series A
• Raising Amount : KRW 2 B
• Desired Fundraising Timeframe : 1Q 2025

In the manufacturing industry, CAD (Computer-Aided Design) is a leading software used for product design. While CAD is well-established and widely utilized, it often encounters challenges during the design process due to the wide range of opinions involved. From deciding on the initial concept for a product to revising design drafts, stakeholders frequently demand changes. Developers might request modifications after the initial draft, and final decision-makers may order adjustments for seemingly minor reasons. As a result, the original design often undergoes multiple revisions, leading to an average timeline of three to six months to finalize a product design.

The company Herewe, the focus of today’s interview, addresses this challenge with its AI-powered software, EaseAI, which is designed to quickly and efficiently integrate complex user requirements into CAD.

EaseAI enables Text-to-CAD or Sketch-to-CAD functionality. Since the exchange and clash of ideas during the design process are inevitable in manufacturing, it’s crucial to reflect user demands swiftly and accurately. For example, users can give verbal or written instructions like “Make the corners rounder” or “Align the cameras on the back of the smartphone in a straight line.” Alternatively, they can sketch their ideas, and EaseAI translates these inputs into CAD designs, enabling faster decision-making. This capability is what makes EaseAI stand out.

But how competitive is EaseAI? Despite being launched as recently as June this year, a major domestic manufacturing conglomerate has already chosen EaseAI over solutions from global giants like Adobe and NVIDIA. This highlights its significant competitive edge. Word of mouth from this company has led to increasing inquiries from other businesses. According to Herewe CEO Ray Lee, “We’ve seen a clear FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) phenomenon with our product.”

However, Herewe didn’t start with EaseAI. As CEO Ray Lee explains, “Our first venture was into the metaverse, leveraging AI-based graphic technology, but the market wasn’t mature enough, so it didn’t take off. Then we tried developing a 3D game using generative AI, but that didn’t succeed either.” After hearing about the challenges with CAD in Korea’s manufacturing sector, the company combined its expertise in 3D technology, AI, and CAD to quickly develop EaseAI. According to Lee, they created a manufacturing MVP based on LLM technology in just two days. While this is their third pivot, their consistent focus on AI, graphics, and 3D technology allowed them to develop the product at an impressive pace.

Lee describes EaseAI as “ChatGPT for 3D” or “a personal AI junior designer.” Just as ChatGPT generates results based on natural language commands, EaseAI takes user input and immediately applies it to CAD designs in real-time.

Since its launch, EaseAI has started generating revenue, beginning with the aforementioned conglomerate. From July this year, sales have totaled approximately 130 million KRW (around $100,000), and the company expects monthly revenue to exceed 500 million KRW (about $380,000) next year as more enterprises adopt the solution. Lee notes that they are currently in discussions with companies across diverse sectors, including ICT devices, home appliances, mobility, F&B, and cosmetics.

EaseAI has also succeeded in attracting overseas investment through the Global Club Deal program, run by the Gyeonggi Creative Economy Innovation Center. This program supports global unicorn development by offering investment, TIPS recommendations, and commercialization in Korea, while overseas VCs assist with international market entry.

To date, Herewe has raised 800 million KRW (approximately $610,000) from global VCs and secured around 1 billion KRW (about $760,000) in government grants, including TIPS. The company is now preparing to establish a U.S. entity and target the American market. Collaborations with OpenAI are under discussion, and they have applied to Y Combinator as part of their efforts to attract U.S. investors and customers. Lee states, “We are planning to raise a pre-Series A round using the SAFE investment model, but Series A funding will be pursued in the U.S.” Herewe aims to scale up by hiring top-tier global engineers and pursuing relentless innovation in the U.S. market.

Herewe, a company of young, intelligent, and ambitious individuals, is striving daily to innovate and grow. Beyond their manufacturing-focused EaseAI, they aim to develop a more versatile version to compete in the global market. They’ve set their sights on the U.S., one of the world’s most competitive markets, as their first step. Whether their journey ends as “a daring experiment by young entrepreneurs” or “a groundbreaking chapter in global startup history” remains uncertain, but it is undoubtedly a thrilling story of ambition and innovation.

What problem is the EaseAI team trying to solve?  

EaseAI addresses the “bottleneck in design decision-making,” a widespread issue in manufacturing that leads to significant costs. From initial ideation to design evaluation, advanced design stages, and final decision-making, feedback from a wide range of stakeholders—from engineers to decision-makers—needs to be incorporated into the design and product. This process demands an excessive amount of time, resources, and costs.

For example, in the case of one of our major clients, Company 00, moving from ideation to final decision-making for a flagship product took around two to six months, required the involvement of over 100 people, and resulted in costs exceeding 20 billion KRW (approximately $15 million).

How does EaseAI solve this problem?  

EaseAI offers a solution that can be described as “a faster, easier, and more cost-effective AI junior product designer.” Think of it as ChatGPT for product design. We provide the world’s best enterprise-grade text-to-CAD solution.

Our platform enables real-time CAD creation and editing, leveraging a variable-, numeric-, and math-based system that meets the stringent quality standards of the manufacturing industry. It performs tasks significantly faster than human product designers and instantly incorporates stakeholder feedback. This allows companies to complete the same processes with 96 percent fewer resources and over 30 times faster than traditional decision-making workflows.

As a result, EaseAI delivers cost savings of at least 10 billion KRW (around $7.6 million). This empowers individual product designers to handle much more work, helping them complete projects faster and with less stress. For companies, it reduces the time and cost associated with decision-making, enabling them to generate greater value at a fraction of the expense compared to competitors.

What are EaseAI’s competitive advantages and technical strengths?  

Most AI solutions in the manufacturing sector fail to meet customer needs, often due to a lack of appropriate technology. EaseAI, however, offers a proprietary solution that is 15,000 times faster than current market-leading methodologies. Using a numeric- and math-based approach, we deliver exactly what customers need in an exceptionally short timeframe.

We recently participated in a project aimed at “increasing organizational productivity through generative AI” for a leading domestic manufacturing conglomerate. Competing against major global companies like N and A, we were ultimately selected for the project.

Our solution includes an advanced CAD code library, a data augmentation pipeline, and pre- and post-processing algorithms. It also integrates vision modules and numeric support and analysis features for an in-depth text-to-CAD system. Remarkably, we developed all of this within just three months. This exceptional speed is a key part of our competitive edge.

As pioneers in developing and commercializing this groundbreaking approach, we currently lead the field with world-class accuracy and technological superiority.

What services do we offer, and what is their current status?

Our core value proposition and service description have already been outlined, so here we’ll focus on the current features of our service. First, EaseAI provides a Chat UX-based product design tool. Second, it offers real-time CAD generation and editing capabilities. Third, it includes CAD editing based on variables and parts. Fourth, our system supports web crawling and internal document RAG (retrieval-augmented generation) for numeric and math-based generation and editing. Finally, it features an advanced Image and Sketch to CAD functionality, which surpasses traditional multimodal approaches.

EaseAI is currently advancing its capabilities for designing complex geometries and assemblies. Additionally, we are developing a CAE (computer-aided engineering) module to enable design optimization after analysis. Our ultimate goal is to revolutionize the entire manufacturing process—from geometric design to engineering and optimization—through disruptive AI-driven innovation.

Who is our target market, and who are our key customers?

The manufacturing industry is one of the largest sectors since the Second Industrial Revolution, encompassing ICT devices like smartphones and laptops, the automotive and mobility sectors such as cars and buses, and broader markets like F&B packaging and cosmetics. Our primary target is top-tier manufacturing firms, of which there are over seven million globally. Based on different upselling packages, we estimate that customers would pay between $500,000 and $2 million annually. Given the highly competitive landscape and the transformative productivity gains offered by generative AI solutions, we anticipate rapid adoption. With this in mind, we project revenues of approximately 350 billion KRW to 700 billion KRW (around $265 million to $530 million) within two years.

Using our extensive manufacturing data and expertise, we also aim to develop a universal text-to-CAD solution targeting both B2B and B2C markets. If we capture just 1% of global CAD users and assume an annual subscription cost of $1,000, this solution alone could generate projected revenues of 600 billion KRW (approximately $455 million).

What is our business model?

EaseAI initially focuses on top-tier manufacturers by offering tailored packages that meet their specific needs. The first offering is the Custom Text-to-CAD (T2C) Only Package, which provides the core T2C functionality without customization. This package is designed for efficient product design workflows and is priced between $5,000 and $10,000 per month. The second offering is the Advanced T2C package, which includes the core T2C functionalities along with custom features and data integration options. It is priced between $10,000 and $50,000 per month and caters to clients requiring more sophisticated design and data capabilities. The third option, Advanced T2C + CAE Copilot, combines the Advanced T2C package with CAE Copilot functionality. This premium package supports product design, analysis, and optimization, making it ideal for large-scale manufacturers managing complex design and engineering tasks. Pricing for this package ranges from $50,000 to $100,000 per month.

After establishing a foothold in the market, we plan to launch a general-purpose T2C solution targeting smaller manufacturers and individual users. This solution will be offered at more affordable subscription rates. The first tier, GP T2C, is a basic T2C solution priced at $110 per month or $1,000 annually, making it accessible to small manufacturers and freelance designers. The second tier, GP T2C + CAE Copilot, includes the basic T2C package with added CAE Copilot functionality for users requiring analysis and optimization features. This package is priced at $150 per month or $1,500 annually.

By offering a diverse range of packages at various price points, EaseAI provides flexible solutions tailored to the needs of clients of all sizes. From large enterprises to small businesses and individual users, our goal is to ensure broad market reach and accessibility while addressing the unique requirements of each customer.

What are our achievements so far?

Since establishing the company in October 2022, we have achieved significant milestones in just two years. We have raised a total of 800 million KRW (approximately $610,000) from top-tier domestic and international institutional investors and secured an additional 1.05 billion KRW (approximately $800,000) in government funding.  

Following our pivot in late June this year, we experienced more than a 12x increase in revenue, starting with a proof of concept (PoC) with a leading domestic manufacturing conglomerate. With strong support from C-level executives, we are now expanding our contract scope. The market has shown clear signs of FOMO (fear of missing out) regarding our solution, and we are currently in negotiations to collaborate with other major corporations.

What sets our team apart?

The EaseAI team brings unmatched expertise and innovation to the table. Our CTO is a gold medalist in the International Olympiad in Informatics, and our development team includes former members of the national informatics team. Many of our developers hail from top institutions such as KAIST, Seoul National University, and Yonsei University, ensuring we have a world-class team.

Thanks to this exceptional talent, we developed a minimum viable product (MVP) in just two days, securing a project with a major domestic company. Within three months, we enhanced and optimized our solution to achieve world-class technical excellence.

Our rapid development speed and customer-obsessed business approach have been key to our swift revenue growth and the creation of a globally competitive solution. EaseAI is driven by daily innovation, adapting quickly to the fast-changing AI market, and establishing itself as a world-class team.

What are our efforts and achievements in global expansion?

We are actively pursuing global opportunities and have applied to leading programs such as Y Combinator’s Winter 2025 batch and Andreessen Horowitz’s Speedrun. In addition, we are in discussions with several venture capital firms in Silicon Valley to secure funding.

We are collaborating with influential partners in Wall Street and Silicon Valley to build a robust talent acquisition pipeline and position ourselves for rapid scaling. Furthermore, we are discussing potential technical collaborations with OpenAI. To streamline our entry into the U.S. market and facilitate funding, we are in the process of flipping our Korean entity into a U.S. corporation.

Three reasons to invest in EaseAI !

First, we are at an inflection point for rapid growth, underpinned by our robust data and AI technology. Our solution has already demonstrated significant impact and effectiveness in the manufacturing sector. With additional investment, we can accelerate this growth and secure a larger market share.

Second, the manufacturing industry, known for its high-quality requirements, has relatively low AI competition. This environment creates a unique opportunity for EaseAI to establish a dominant position. With our unparalleled technical capabilities, we are poised to lead this market.

Third, we aim to list on NASDAQ within the next five years. This presents an opportunity for investors to achieve substantial returns during intermediate funding rounds and the eventual exit stage.

In conclusion, EaseAI is a high-growth company with the technological edge to create exceptional value in the market. We are well-positioned to drive innovation, capture market leadership, and deliver meaningful returns for our investors.