Mashup Ventures Makes Seed Investment in AI-Based VR Tracking Solution Developer Soulart

Accurately tracks users' full-body movements without wearable equipment
Applicable to a wide range of fields including gaming, simulations, and digital twins
Selected for the TIPS Deep Tech Track by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups after investment

Soulart, a developer of artificial intelligence (AI)-based virtual reality (VR) tracking solutions, announced on September 16, 2025, that it has secured seed investment from Mashup Ventures.

Soulart is developing the "Soulart Station," a tracking solution that accurately monitors a user's full-body movements without the need for wearable equipment, as well as the "Soulart App," VR tracking software that can be freely utilized in any environment.

Soulart's system leverages precise spatial reinterpretation technology and optimized on-device AI processing to reduce the number of expensive three-dimensional recognition sensors compared to conventional VR trackers. This has lowered setup costs to about 25% of existing solutions while increasing motion recognition accuracy. Based on its built-in neural processing unit (NPU), the technology can be applied not only to gaming but also to simulations, digital twins, and various other human recognition fields. Recognized for its technological excellence, Soulart was selected for the TIPS deep tech track organized by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, securing 1.5 billion won (approximately 1.1 million US dollars) in research and development (R&D) funding.

CEO Oh Hyukjae demonstrated his development capabilities by entering KAIST as a computer science special talent and winning the grand prize in the public contest category of the Korea Informatics Olympiad. While serving in the military, he further developed the idea of a non-wearable VR tracker and received awards in competitions such as "Challenge! K-Startup" and the "Chung Ju-Young Startup Competition." After completing his service, he officially launched the company with COO Jeon Daum, a fellow graduate from a science high school and the KAIST Department of Computer Science.

Oh Hyukjae, CEO of Soulart, stated, "We are preparing for the official product launch at the end of the year. Ultimately, we aim to make fully immersive VR experiences, once seen only in movies, easily accessible to general users. We also plan to expand recruitment of top engineers in the field of human-centered recognition."

Park Eunwoo, Partner at Mashup Ventures who led this investment, commented, "Despite high user demand, the VR full-body tracker market still faces challenges such as high prices and uncomfortable wearability. We highly value the team's outstanding technical expertise and domain knowledge, as well as their systematic approach to solving the problems they personally experienced while using VR trackers."