K-Ground Ventures Invests in SearchM for AI-Based Ad Fintech Development

Image source=Search M.

K-Ground Ventures recently announced on the 11th that it has invested in SearchM, which developed the AI-based ad-fintech service 'SM Pay' for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and commerce businesses.

Founded in 2008, SearchM is a digital advertising marketing company with clients such as 3M, Unilever, CJ Wellcare, and Anguk Pharmaceutical. SM Pay is an advertising fintech solution developed in response to the reality that small and medium-sized advertisers, who make up the majority of the digital advertising market, are unable to actively spend advertising budgets due to the burden of prepaid advertising expenses.

Currently, many SMEs run advertisements by preloading advertising budgets on digital platforms such as Naver and Kakao. Therefore, small and medium-sized advertisers who have difficulty securing cash flow cannot immediately increase their budgets even if advertising performance improves, which acts as a constraint on rapidly expanding sales.

SM Pay is designed to analyze advertising performance data and prioritize funding advertising expenses to small and medium-sized advertisers with competitive products and services, allowing flexible adjustment of advertising budgets according to performance to quickly increase sales. Starting next year, the service will be enhanced by integrating AI technology to automate the advertising process and optimize performance through real-time data analysis and prediction.

SearchM explained that pilot tests with advertisers showed that using SM Pay can expect an average sales growth of 56%, and work efficiency between agencies and advertisers increased by about 30%.

Park Gyutae, CEO of SearchM, said, "In the digital advertising market, 500,000 small businesses face growth limitations due to cash flow issues," adding, "We will actively utilize AI technology to help small businesses improve marketing work efficiency and optimize advertising performance to expand sales."

Lee Suhee, partner at K-Ground Ventures, explained the investment reason, saying, "We were interested in the company's approach to solving challenges faced by SMEs in the digital advertising market through an innovative fintech solution that addresses advertising budget liquidity," and added, "We expect it to become a game changer that will transform the structure of the digital advertising market."