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Bunker Kids, which operates the AI character chat service 'WHIF', announced on the 11th that it has secured a Series A investment totaling 150 billion won.
Eight investors participated in the funding round: Kolon Investment, Kakao Ventures, Mirae Asset Capital, WeVentures, BSK Investment, Murex Partners, Crit Ventures, and Samcheonri Investment.
WHIF is an AI interactive content platform where users form relationships by conversing with AI characters and create new narratives based on their choices. Unlike simple Q&A-style chats that provide predetermined responses, WHIF features a structure in which the relationship and story between the user and the character organically expand as conversations accumulate. Users can directly create and share their own AI characters, enabling them to simultaneously consume and produce content.
Currently, the average daily stay time for paying users of WHIF has been recorded at 217 minutes. Over nine months since the service launched, monthly payment revenue grew by an average of 110%. WHIF is currently ranked first in sales within the Asian female-oriented AI character chat market.
Global market performance is also becoming visible. After launching simultaneously in Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, and the United States in October 2025, WHIF is now being offered in 13 countries. Approximately 40% of total revenue comes from overseas, and Bunker Kids plans to increase the proportion of overseas sales to over 60% by year-end.
Bunker Kids anticipates that the AI character chat market will expand from a text-centric model to a multimodal content market combining images and video. Accordingly, the company is pursuing diversified IP expansion for characters through webtoons, videos, games, and other media, while also promoting user-generated creative activities.
The company stated that it plans to aggressively recruit across all departments—including development, planning, design, and marketing—to expand its organization following this investment. Additionally, Bunker Kids aims to accelerate its entry into overseas markets by enhancing the quality of characters and narratives, integrating multimodal technologies, and refining country-specific content and user experiences.
Bunker Kids is a company composed of personnel from tech firms such as Coupang and Toss, including Jeong Seung-wan (CEO), who has experience in two business acquisitions.
Kim Bo-young, Executive Director at Kolon Investment, said, "Bunker Kids has demonstrated its growth potential based on deep market understanding and rapid execution capabilities," expressing high expectations for its global expansion.
Jang Dong-wook, Executive Director at Kakao Ventures, remarked, "Despite being a late entrant that launched its service in mid-2025, the team achieved key metrics within just seven months." He added, "Having secured female-oriented users with high purchasing power based on capital efficiency and product implementation capabilities, significant growth as a global K-IP platform is anticipated."
Jung Seung-wan, CEO of Bunker Kids, stated, "Just as online games evolved from text-centric formats to those combining graphics and video, the AI character chat market is also reaching a turning point." He continued, "We will expand into multimodal content that integrates images and video to create new content experiences."
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