"I had a hunch that investment work would be replaced by AI" — The reason behind creating the 'AI Reviewer'

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Domestic independent venture capital firm The Ventures is gaining attention for actively utilizing an 'AI Reviewer' in venture investments. Hwang Sung-hyun, the Tech Lead (Reviewer), led the development of The Ventures' 'AI Reviewer.'

He was a co-founder and the inaugural CTO (Chief Technology Officer) of Bangsalad, a financial and health management platform company based on MyData. After joining The Ventures in early last year, he unveiled the first version of the AI reviewer 'Vicky' within just three months.

The name Vicky was derived from 'Viki,' a global video service that The Ventures' founders Ho Chang-seong and Moon Ji-won sold to Japan's Rakuten. It carries the meaning: "We are looking for the next Vicky (a startup that will grow well and reach an exit)."

Vicky was inspired by Hwang Tech Lead's own experiences during his time as an entrepreneur. He believed that building a quick connection between VCs and entrepreneurs should be the priority, so he began developing an AI agent. He said, "It takes far too long to send an email to a VC, receive a response, and finally meet."

He continued, "Often, there is no reply for a while, and then suddenly you get a call saying, 'The CEO would like to meet you.' From the entrepreneur's perspective, this experience itself is really poor. I thought that if we could make this process dramatically faster, a virtuous cycle could begin from there."

Tech Lead Hwang emphasized, "Providing the best possible experience for entrepreneurs is, in the long run, how VCs can reach good entrepreneurs." The AI agent Vicky was born with this purpose.

The results of introducing Vicky were dramatic. The investment review period, which used to take 30 to 40 days, was shortened to two weeks and is now further optimized to under three days. Administrative work time, such as writing investment review reports, has been reduced by approximately 80%.

Tech Lead Hwang said, "When we receive an investment review request from a startup via our website, the AI conducts preliminary research and makes an investment judgment. Afterward, all processes where reviewers examine within a set period and respond to the startup run entirely on Vicky."

Vicky's role now extends beyond simple investment review. It broadly covers back-office areas of fund management, including collecting and organizing portfolio company updates and drafting quarterly fund reports for LPs (limited partners).

The alignment rate between human reviewers' and Vicky's investment judgments is around 90%. Tech Lead Hwang views the remaining 10% discrepancy as a meaningful signal. Humans have biases, whereas Vicky has no bias whatsoever.

He said, "A typical example is entrepreneur profiles. Humans inevitably look at an entrepreneur's background and may skim reviews if their educational background is not impressive. Vicky, however, looks only at 'what problem they are trying to solve' and 'market characteristics,' following our investment philosophy."

Vicky sometimes leads to investments in companies it has negatively evaluated. Tech Lead Hwang stated, "If the content entered by a startup differs from its actual business, the AI may not judge correctly. It is not necessary for human and AI judgments to match 100%. In fact, that difference creates good investment opportunities."

He added, "Vicky actually enables more challenging investments. In areas where humans might think 'how could this work?' due to prejudice, the AI may statistically discover a 1% possibility."

Tech Lead Hwang acknowledged concerns that introducing AI agents like Vicky could lead to workforce reductions in the VC industry, but he also predicted it could become a new factor for expanding the VC business.

He said, "In the AI era, we may not need as many VC personnel as before. However, I believe the essence of VCs adopting AI is not 'reducing people' but 'managing larger funds with the same number of people.'"

Tech Lead Hwang identified 'crazy ideas' and 'building relationships' as the roles VC personnel should focus on in the AI era. He said, "Seed investments can yield good results from things others call crazy, and maintaining and supporting relationships with entrepreneurs and investors is still something humans do better."

Other VCs are also showing high interest in Vicky. It is reported that numerous VCs have visited The Ventures' office to see Vicky. However, regarding plans to 'productize' Vicky, Tech Lead Hwang said, "If it becomes a solution good enough for someone to pay for, we will keep it exclusive and contribute to making The Ventures the top VC."

The Ventures plans to evolve into an 'AI-native VC' alongside Vicky. He stated, "Until now, Vicky has mainly been perceived as playing only an investment review role. That is just part of what Vicky does. Our goal is for AI to operate the entire VC process from start to finish and call in humans only for areas where AI cannot perform."

He further emphasized, "Ultimately, a VC is a platform connecting innovation and capital. We believe that by providing the best experience to both customers—investors and entrepreneurs—the platform will succeed. Our goal is to become the best AI-native VC not just in Korea but on a global scale."

[MoneyToday startup media platform 'Unicorn Factory']