Waddle Launches US Subsidiary Waddle Labs for AI E-commerce

SAN FRANCISCO, CA — Waddle Inc., an AI startup, announced Monday the establishment of Waddle Labs, a wholly owned subsidiary in San Francisco, to support its entry into the U.S. market.

Co-founder and director Yong-won Cho has been appointed to lead the subsidiary.

According to the company, the expansion follows its first-place finish at the OpenAI GPT-5 Hackathon in San Francisco in August 2025, where it competed against 93 international teams.

Waddle's primary product, Gentoo, is an AI-based tool marketed as a growth agent for e-commerce platforms.

The tool has been available on the Shopify App Store since September 2025 and, according to the company, has secured paid contracts with 10 brands in San Francisco and Los Angeles.

According to Waddle, four e-commerce clients that deployed Gentoo reported an average monthly gross merchandise value (GMV) increase of 35% over four months following implementation. 

The figures were provided by the company and have not been independently verified.

The South Korean version of Gentoo is centered on conversational commerce and automated customer inquiries.

The global version uses what the company describes as "digital clones"—virtual customer profiles generated from existing dialogue data—to identify friction points in online storefronts and automate operational and marketing tasks.

Waddle said its North American strategy will focus on real-time conversion rate optimization, positioning Gentoo as an execution-focused AI agent rather than a conventional chatbot.

Waddle was founded in 2019 and has raised approximately $2 million in total funding from investors, including Kakao Ventures, Fast Ventures, and BonAngels Venture Partners.