A Korean AI service platform startup WRTN Technologies (hereafter referred to as WRTN) has successfully completed its Series B funding round, securing an additional 63 million USD (83 billion KRW ) and bringing the total amount raised to 81 million USD (108 billion KRW ). This brings WRTN’s cumulative investment amount to over 97 million USD (130 billion KRW).

The investment round was led by Goodwater Capital, a new investor, with participation from existing investors including BRV Capital Management, Capstone Partners, Woori Venture Partners, Suigeneris Partners, Antler, and Z Venture Capital (ZVC).

This latest round of funding comes just nine months after WRTN raised 25 billion KRW (approximately 19 million USD) in a pre-Series B round in June of the previous year. WRTN stated, “For a startup in the AI service platform sector, rather than in LLM (Large Language Models) or semiconductors, reaching a cumulative investment of over 1 trillion KRW (approximately 750 million USD) is a first in South Korea.”

Jinseok Oh, Partner at Goodwater Capital, who oversaw the investment in WRTN, explained, “The AI market environment is changing rapidly, and we are on the cusp of an era where AI services will cater to a wide range of customers. WRTN is an innovative company that is leading these trends and demonstrating strong growth potential and the ability to scale as a powerful platform.”

In October of last year, just one year and ten months after launching, WRTN surpassed 5 million monthly active users, achieving this milestone faster than competitors such as Toss (approximately 3 years and 3 months) and Daangn (approximately 2 years). In terms of revenue, WRTN reached 1 billion KRW (approximately 750,000 USD) in monthly revenue from its character chat service in November, followed by 2 billion KRW (approximately 1.5 million USD) in December, demonstrating strong and consistent growth.

Additionally, WRTN plans to officially launch its character chat service, Crack, as a standalone web and app service on April 3. The main WRTN platform will undergo a major overhaul and update next month, with new features including AI search, productivity tools, and “My AI.”

WRTN will hold a press conference on April 8 at the Four Seasons Hotel in Seoul for both domestic and international media. The event will focus on the launch of “WRTN 3.0” and provide a detailed explanation of the company’s future vision following this investment round. The Four Seasons Hotel was chosen as the venue due to its historical significance, having hosted the 2016 Go match between AI AlphaGo and Lee Sedol, a landmark event in the history of AI.

Lye Se-young, CEO of WRTN, stated, “From the start, WRTN has aimed to create AI that interacts with the public and becomes a part of everyday life, rather than being confined to laboratory settings. Moving forward, we will continue to refine AI services that are easy and convenient for everyone to use, with the goal of becoming the central platform representing the AI era.”