South Korean AI Startup VoyagerX Raises $12.3 Million in New Funding

Seoul, South Korea - South Korean artificial intelligence startup VoyagerX has secured KRW 16.5 billion ($12.27 million) in a new funding round, bringing its total funding to date to KRW 46.5 billion ($34.59 million), the company said on Thursday.

InterVest and Murex Partners led the latest investment. 

The existing backers are Altos Ventures, SBVA (formerly SoftBank Ventures Asia), and Yellowdog.

VoyagerX, founded in 2017, develops AI-based services, including the video editing tool Vrew and the mobile scanning app vFlat. 

The company reported significant growth, with paid Vrew subscribers increasing 3.5 times and vFlat subscribers growing sixfold over the past year. 

Global users now account for over 30% of the user base for both services.

The startup's flagship product, Vrew, utilizes AI for automatic subtitle generation and video production. 

VFlat offers AI-powered high-quality scanning features and handwriting removal capabilities.

VoyagerX CEO Nam Se-dong told Reuters the company plans to allocate the new funds across several key areas:

• Talent Acquisition: Approximately 40% of the funding will be hiring AI engineers and product developers.
• R&D: Around 30% will be invested in developing new AI services, focusing on natural language processing and computer vision technologies.
• Market Expansion: The remaining 30% will support entry into new markets, including plans for global expansion.

"We aim to significantly expand our team by hiring 100 people by 2022," Nam said. "We aim to launch new AI-powered products and enhance our existing offerings in the coming months."

The company also plans to improve its existing products, targeting increases in Vrew's AI-generated subtitle accuracy and vFlat's document reconstruction capabilities.