From Investment to Technical Support... Naver Discovers New Generative AI Startups

Naver's startup nurturing organization D2SF (D2 Startup Factory) announced on the 18th that it is recruiting startups in the generative artificial intelligence (AI) industry sector.

Anyone with a startup related to the generative AI field can apply for this open recruitment. D2SF seeks to discover startups for new investment across the entire generative AI value chain, including ▲infrastructure startups such as AI semiconductors, ▲data and model processing startups like foundation models and AI lightweighting, and ▲startups creating applications optimized for various industries using generative AI.

The final selected teams will receive not only investment from Naver D2SF but also various benefits to support systematic growth. They will be granted 100 million KRW worth of Naver Cloud credits free of charge, which can be used to leverage Naver’s AI technologies such as HyperCLOVA X. Opportunities for collaboration will be arranged through exchanges with various technical departments at Naver. Workspaces will also be provided according to the characteristics of each team.

Since its launch in 2015, Naver D2SF has continued aggressive investments in AI startups, building an investment portfolio that covers the entire AI value chain. Representative examples include ▲Puriosa AI, an AI semiconductor startup discovered and supported from the pre-startup team stage, and ▲CrowdWorks, which has advanced its AI training data platform in collaboration with Naver and is preparing for a KOSDAQ listing.

Yang Sang-hwan, leader of Naver D2SF, said, "Through this open recruitment, which significantly strengthens growth support programs such as 100 million KRW in credits usable with HyperCLOVA X, we aim to establish ourselves as a partner that supports many more AI startups from investment to growth."