Upstage Secures KRW 560B in National Growth Fund Investment

SEOUL, South Korea — Upstage secured KRW 560.0 billion (US$414.8 million) in funding, becoming the National Growth Fund's first direct investment target in the AI model sector.

The Financial Services Commission approved the transaction on April 30.

The capital includes KRW 100.0 billion (US$74.1 million) from the Advanced Strategic Industry Fund, KRW 30.0 billion (US$22.2 million) from the Korea Development Bank, and KRW 430.0 billion (US$318.5 million) from private investors.

Participating private entities include Saje Partners, SK Networks, Woori Venture Partners, and Mirae Asset.

Upstage develops enterprise and government AI solutions, specializing in large language models.

Upstage holds a valuation exceeding KRW 1.0 trillion (US$740.7 million) and is the sole venture firm to pass the initial evaluation of the South Korean government's independent AI foundation model project.

Upstage said it will allocate the funds to advance its proprietary AI foundation models, "Solar Pro" and "Solar Open."

Upstage also plans to develop next-generation business-to-business AI models and secure infrastructure for large-language-model operations.

As part of its development strategy, Upstage will collaborate with a major domestic portal to acquire data and refine its Korean language-specific models.

The National Growth Fund has executed 11 investments totaling KRW 8.4 trillion (US$6.22 billion) as of April, including this transaction.

Upstage CEO Sung Kim said the funding is intended to help the company establish independent foundation models amid global AI competition.