Retrvr Raises Pre-Seed Round to Expand AI Compliance Platform Klarisk Beyond ISMS-P to Global Frameworks

Retrvr, a South Korean startup behind the AI-powered governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) automation platform Klarisk, has closed a pre-seed investment round from Mashup Ventures.

Klarisk is designed to automate the labor-intensive process of obtaining and maintaining information security certifications. Rather than relying on conventional checklist-based audits, the platform deploys AI agents that understand regulatory requirements and internal controls, enabling them to analyze supporting documents and operational data to assess compliance status, flag potential risks, and recommend corrective actions. A key feature is its ability to automatically map a single piece of evidence to every applicable certification clause it satisfies — allowing organizations to reuse documentation across multiple frameworks such as ISMS-P and ISO 27001, significantly reducing duplicated effort.

Retrvr was co-founded by Yongjae Lee, who holds a PhD in computer science from KAIST and previously co-founded S2W, a big data analytics and AI firm focused on cyber threat intelligence that went on to list on the KOSDAQ. Lee built the company alongside Hojun Lee, a KAIST alumnus and natural language processing specialist serving as CTO.

In addition to the Mashup Ventures investment, Retrvr was selected for the TIPS program — a government-backed R&D support initiative administered by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups — on the recommendation of Mashup Ventures, securing up to approximately $328,300 (KRW 500 million) in R&D funding. The company has also been chosen as a collaboration partner under NongHyup’s Open Business Hub program, through which it is currently validating its AI-driven information security and compliance management automation technology.

“As recent security incidents have intensified regulatory scrutiny around information protection both domestically and globally, companies are facing mounting cost burdens and talent shortages,” said Seungkuk Lee, Partner at Mashup Ventures. “We invested because we believe Retrvr’s team — with deep expertise in natural language processing and cybersecurity — has the technical foundation to drive meaningful innovation in this market.”

Yongjae Lee, CEO of Retrvr, said the company plans to expand beyond ISMS-P to cover global frameworks including ISO 27001 and SOC 2, with the goal of supporting Korean companies entering international markets and strengthening security capabilities across industries.