"Now Operating 24 Times a Year"
On June 25, early-stage startup investment firm TheVentures announced that it will transition its regular investment review program, "Monthly Batch," to a "Biweekly Batch" system. With the ability to incorporate artificial intelligence (AI) reviewers into the actual evaluation process, a faster and more flexible review structure is now anticipated.
Previously, in March, TheVentures revealed its plan to introduce an AI reviewer system by recruiting Hwang Sunghyun, co-founder of Banksalad, as its tech lead. After approximately three months of prototype development and operational validation, the company began fully implementing the AI reviewer "Vicky 1.0" version in actual investment reviews starting this month.
Since 2022, TheVentures has operated the "Monthly Batch" program, assessing investment opportunities through interviews centered on key questions lasting about 20 minutes, and disbursing funds within an average of four weeks. With this restructuring, the review cycle has been shortened to a biweekly schedule, allowing founders to apply for investment reviews up to 24 times a year. The average waiting time has also been cut by half, and the period from review to fund transfer has been reduced to about three weeks.
The newly revamped review process now incorporates evaluations from the AI reviewer. The multi-agent-based AI system analyzes various factors such as market potential and competitive landscape, then synthesizes quantitative and qualitative indicators to present a five-level evaluation result. Different AI agents, each performing specific roles, analyze the data, and based on this, the AI reviewer summarizes and provides the strengths and risks of each company. Partners and human reviewers refer to these evaluation results to decide whether to proceed with investment meetings. Through this structure, TheVentures is simultaneously improving both the speed of initial screening and the precision of its assessments.
The operational results have been positive. The average review time has decreased by 44%, and the consistency rate between the AI reviewer’s assessment and actual investment decisions has reached 78%. In particular, the proportion of companies positively evaluated by the AI reviewer that proceed to actual meetings has been steadily increasing. TheVentures has also designed its evaluation criteria to be more flexible and optimistic in order to quickly identify promising early-stage teams.
The AI reviewer system is overseen by lead Hwang Sunghyun. It is enhancing the entire investment structure, from automating reviews to analyzing portfolio data and connecting follow-on investments.
Kim Chulwoo, CEO of TheVentures, stated, "Investment firms, like startups, must continuously experiment and evolve. The reason we are integrating technologies such as AI into our investment process is to help founders seize every opportunity."
He added, "The AI reviewer plays a key role in creating a fast and flexible investment review structure. Going forward, we will continue to use technology in practical ways to build an ecosystem that naturally connects founders and investment opportunities."
Meanwhile, TheVentures is currently managing the 5 billion won "Impact Collective Korea Fund" and the 19 billion won "Founders Community Fund 1," with a strong focus on investments in AI and consumer goods. With the introduction of the biweekly batch system, the company also plans to more than double its annual number of investment reviews compared to before.
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