Kakao Ventures Invests in Conversational AI Agent Zentu

Kakao Ventures announced on the 13th that it has made a pre-Series A investment of 2 billion KRW in Wadle, the developer of the conversational artificial intelligence (AI) agent Gentu, which drives purchase conversions, along with Bon Angels Venture Partners and Fast Ventures.

Wadle is developing the AI agent Gentu, which converses with visitors to online shopping malls and recommends products that match their purchase intentions and situations. Gentu is a solution that learns detailed product information and reviews from the shopping mall and introduces and recommends products desired by customers like a veteran salesperson. Currently, Gentu is being used on domestic and international e-commerce platforms for meal kits, alcoholic beverages, supplements, bedding, and more.

Since 2021, Wadle has operated a conversational shopping service on the barrier-free online shopping application "Sori Market," securing commerce conversation data. Based on high-quality conversation data from product exploration to payment, they developed language models specialized for each stage of the commerce purchase journey.

After securing investment, Wadle plans to expand its service scope to enable meaningful relationships between companies and customers. Based on Gentu's conversation data, it will provide analysis results of shopping mall visitors' interests and preferences. Utilizing this, they will also launch CRM (Customer Relationship Management) solutions such as personalized push notifications and curated event planning. Starting in the second half of the year, they aim to expand beyond e-commerce into vertical sectors such as automotive, real estate, and finance.

Wadle is a team centered around CEO Ji-Hyuk Park, Chief Strategy Officer (CSO) Yong-Won Jo, and Tech Lead Jin-Won Lee, who have collaborated for over 10 years at Korea Science Academy and KAIST. CEO Ji-Hyuk Park stated, "Through Gentu, a conversational AI that understands customers, we will offer consumers an innovative online purchasing experience and jointly solve the perennial challenge of purchase conversion faced by sellers. We will grow by leveraging the potential of conversational AI to open a new era of interfaces and lead the expansion of the digital base."