ButBeautiful Raises Pre-Series A Funding, Selected for TIPS Program to Scale AI Social App Truloop Globally

ButBeautiful, the operator of AI-powered social app Truloop, has closed a pre-Series A funding round.

The amount was not disclosed. Laguna Investment led the round, with participation from CRIT Ventures, Kiwoom Investment, Z Venture Capital (ZVC), and Grandeclip chairman Kim Bong-jin.

Through Laguna Investment’s investment linkage, ButBeautiful was also selected for the TIPS R&D Global Track and will receive an additional 1.2 billion won (approximately USD 920,000) by October 2028. The company plans to use the capital to refine Truloop’s AI features and community functions while accelerating its global market expansion by acquiring early users from universities, clubs, and communities in the United States and Japan.

Founded by Suman Park, who launched Korea’s first microblog service “me2day” and led the design and rollout of Naver’s Band, ButBeautiful was incorporated in Delaware in 2025 and is based in Los Angeles. The team includes Hyung-il Kim as CBO, who spearheaded Naver Webtoon’s full IP OSMU business and international growth—particularly in the United States—along with veterans from leading Korean IT companies; the startup has been developing Truloop for global audiences from the outset.

Truloop is an AI-native social platform that unifies the entire lifecycle of gatherings—from planning to documentation—into one experience. The app was built to address the fragmented nature of today’s meet-up flow, in which people ping calendars and messaging apps to coordinate time, switch to map and reservation services to pick a venue, and then rely on yet another messenger or social-media app to share photos afterward.

Truloop’s AI analyzes participants’ schedules to recommend mutually convenient meeting times, assists in venue selection and restaurant reservations, and then automatically collects photos taken by attendees to generate personalized stories and highlight reels, making it easy to document the shared experience. Whereas established social media platforms focus on maintaining online relationships, Truloop leverages AI to center on real-world, in-person connections—or “IRL” (In Real Life)—striving to thread planning, gathering, and memory-keeping into a single social service that helps people accumulate daily moments over time.

In July 2026, ButBeautiful raised  800 million won(approximately USD 615,000) from CRIT Ventures. At the time, the app had logged 10,000 downloads and 4,500 weekly active users within three months of launch, spreading rapidly among students at major U.S. universities and second-generation Korean Americans.

Recently, Truloop has extended beyond personal gatherings to community use: the USC club network, music community “Studio Jam,” fitness group “1000 Calorie Club,” and the Yonsei University Alumni Association in the United States are all using the app for event creation, sign-up management, and post-event documentation. The company is designing a virtuous cycle in which users who encounter Truloop through community events naturally broaden their use to casual dinners, travel, and sports outings with friends, building a unified social graph that bridges personal and community activity.

“ButBeautiful combines a team that successfully scaled large social services such as me2day and Band with the product capability to turn AI into real user experiences,” said Park Young-ho, CEO of Laguna Investment. “We expect them to deliver a new social experience for the AI era and grow rapidly in global markets on the strength of their proven execution.”

“Gatherings are the fundamental activity that forms human relationships, but coordinating schedules, booking venues, managing attendance, and sharing photos still require jumping across multiple services,” said Suman Park, CEO of ButBeautiful. “Truloop’s goal is to help people meet more easily, naturally record the time they spend together, and carry that momentum into the next gathering.”

AI-powered content companies continue to attract funding in Korea. Earlier this year, Mateo AI Studio, which develops original IP and production technology using AI, raised 2 billion won(approximately USD 1.5 million) in a pre-Series A round, and Q Tip, creator of the AI-based video project-management and production platform Takku, closed a seed-bridge investment.