[BizLeader] Jeong Hanseop, CEO of Twim, "Full-scale Entry into US Secondary Battery and Solar Power Markets"

AI Machine Vision Specialist Twim
Strength in Customized Products... Successful Turn to Profitability

Jeon Han-seop, CEO of Twim. / Photo by Jang Hyo-won

"Starting this year, we plan to use our Georgia, USA branch as a forward base to actively enter the local solar power and secondary battery markets."

Jung Han-seop, CEO of Twim, recently shared this vision for the company in an interview with Asia Economy.

Twim is a company capable of producing all vision systems ranging from rule-based to artificial intelligence (AI) through its self-developed software and hardware. Rule-based machine vision systems are effective for defect detection with fixed rules, but Twim applies specialized algorithms for irregular defects, enabling inspection even of distorted products.

CEO Jung, who had a passion for programming from a young age?self-taught to the extent of creating games?founded Twim at age 28 after graduating from university. In its early days, Twim developed and supplied automatic control software. Later, it entered the machine vision business for defect inspection, and in 2017, riding the boom in the display industry, recorded sales of 65 billion KRW and operating profit of 35 billion KRW. Ultimately, Twim succeeded in listing on the KOSDAQ after 11 years since its founding. Currently, it is the sole vision partner of the global display company S, carrying out the module front-end alignment vision system project.

CEO Jung stated, "Most other companies provide services through standardized platforms, which limits customization. In contrast, Twim has developed its own platform, allowing us to offer tailored services suited to customer sites and products, which is a competitive advantage." He added that Twim can configure only the necessary functions for each client, thus also maintaining price competitiveness.

Based on this customization technology and its self-developed AI software 'MOAI,' Twim is expanding into various industries. AI-based machine vision systems quickly and accurately inspect irregular and unstructured defects by learning images of both good and defective products.

In fact, Twim is conducting projects such as full-process inspection of cell module lines for a global solar power company, fuel cell demo line inspection for global automaker H, and pouch inspection for ginseng health food manufacturer K.

CEO Jung said, "Twim is expanding its market into diverse industries such as secondary batteries, solar power, displays, automobiles and tires, food, steel, chemical, metals, and robotics through custom equipment development tailored to each sector."

The machine vision inspection system market is showing annual growth. The global machine vision market size is expected to grow from 124 trillion KRW in 2018 to 1,200 trillion KRW by 2025, with an average annual growth rate of 38.4%. Twim also achieved a turnaround to profitability last year in line with this market growth. Twim recorded sales of 34.5 billion KRW and operating profit of 2 billion KRW last year. This was thanks to a surge in sales related to the secondary battery and solar power industries in Q4, as well as increased performance in the new energy-saving solutions business.

This year, Twim aims to target the secondary battery and solar power markets. CEO Jung stated, "Starting this year, we will use our Georgia, USA branch as a forward base to actively conduct sales activities related to secondary batteries and solar power investments in the US. We also plan to develop new items that apply Twim’s technology to various secondary battery processes and strengthen our sales capabilities to continue the sales growth trend."