Diquest, a Korean AI company focused on enterprise search and AI Contact Center solutions, has raised approximately $10.5 million (₩15.2 billion) in a pre-IPO round, kicking off its push toward a Kosdaq listing.

The round was backed by Groom Investment, Double Capital, Smart Study Ventures, AIM Investment, JB Investment, and Hyundai Investment Partners.

Diquest has carved out a niche at the intersection of large-scale search engines and natural language processing (NLP), deploying AI search, recommendation systems, and AI contact center platforms across the public, financial, and manufacturing sectors. The company has been deepening its stack with intelligent search, RAG-based services, conversational AI, and generative AI — and recently bolstered its customer experience AI (AX) capabilities through a hybrid RAG architecture that melds the large language model (LLM) technology of parent company Saltlux with Diquest’s own search engine expertise.

The proceeds will fund R&D expansion, product development, and hiring, with a focus on building out a technical team of specialists in search, NLP, and AI modeling.

Diquest is working with Mirae Asset Securities as its lead underwriter and is exploring listing options, including a technology-based special IPO track, with a 2027 Kosdaq debut in its sights.

“This pre-IPO round reaffirms Diquest’s competitiveness and growth potential as an AI specialist,” said CEO Seunghoon Jeon. “We will keep pushing forward on AX-driven technology advancement and talent acquisition to sustain our long-term growth.”