Deep tech heats up investment market in the first week of September as massive funds pour into space and robotics sectors

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During the first week of September (August 31 to September 4), interest in South Korea's venture investment market focused on deep tech sectors encompassing space, defense, and robotics. Three "mega-deals" exceeding 10 billion won were completed, with investments distributed across a wide range of stages from seed to pre-IPO (pre-listing equity investment).

Companies that secured funding during this period include: Twiny, Embricks, Turing, Wellcon Systems, Insera Solutions, Able Labs, Airility, Intellisia, Accord Entertainment, Beviewful, Founder's A, Space Lab, The Mion, Kim Technique, New Heritage, Backend X, and Lucky Studio — totaling 17 companies.

The company that secured the largest funding was Twiny, an autonomous driving robot firm that completed a pre-IPO round of 14.4 billion won. Building on its autonomous driving technology and operational experience accumulated in domestic logistics and industrial sites, Twiny plans to formally proceed with KOSDAQ listing procedures and accelerate its expansion into overseas markets.

Insera Solutions, which received an investment of 13.5 billion won, specializes in fast-precision steering mirrors (FSM). These optical components precisely and rapidly control the direction of laser beams and were selected as payloads for the second space verification satellite of the Space Administration. The company aims to secure a record of space operations through the fifth Nuri rocket launch scheduled for next month.

Able Labs, a robotics-based laboratory automation company, secured a Series A investment of 12.1 billion won. Able Labs is expanding its platform by replacing manual pipetting tasks with robots and developing an autonomous laboratory (SDL) where AI designs experimental conditions and learns from results.

DC servo drive company Wellcon Systems closed its Series B round at 8 billion won, 3 billion won above its initial target of 5 billion won. The company gained attention for expanding its precision motor control technology — originally used in semiconductor and display equipment — to collaborative robots, surgical robots, humanoid hands, and autonomous mobile robots.

Airility, an aerospace and defense technology company, secured a Series A investment of 6.5 billion won led by Silicon Valley VC SVP Partners. Airility is developing a counter-drone (C-UAS) interception system using the "air-to-air hard kill" method that directly strikes threatening drones in mid-air.

Space Lab, a satellite propulsion solution company, will embark on developing an electric control thruster for payloads on the sixth Nuri rocket launch, based on its seed investment. The technology uses low-toxicity propellants and electrical signals to control ignition, shutdown, and reignition of thrusters, achieving high thrust and flexible operational performance characteristic of chemical propulsion systems.

Kim Technique, a nano-composite materials company led by HYBE's Yoo-mu-gi that received seed funding, will strengthen its material R&D capabilities and Yangsan response capacity. By combining its proprietary platform with industrial materials, the company is conducting performance evaluations with semiconductor, display, and optical firms using technology that adjusts optical refractive index, dielectric constant, and thermal conductivity.

In the biotech sector, Embricks, which develops a targeted delivery platform combining antibodies and lipid nanoparticles (LNP), completed its Series B round of 8 billion won, securing cumulative funding of 11.2 billion won. The company is developing therapeutics that deliver CAR mRNA to specific immune cells to generate CAR-T cells within the body.

Dermo-on, a skin drug absorption technology company, will pursue derma-cosmetic and veterinary medicine development based on its seed investment. Building on "NADS," which enables peptide materials to self-form nanoparticles and penetrate skin without excipients or physical stimulation, Dermo-on is developing cosmetic ingredients and topical pharmaceuticals.

In the AI sector, companies that secured user and client metrics were chosen by capital markets. Turing, which operates the college student-focused AI agent "GPAI," secured a Series B investment of 7 billion won. GPAI's growth trajectory, surpassing 1.5 million subscribers within one year of launch, drew significant attention.

Intellisia, an AI synthetic consumer startup, secured a pre-Series A investment of 3.4 billion won. The company operates "The Survey," which uses AI trained on real consumer data to generate hundreds of thousands of virtual consumers who respond to surveys and interviews, reducing consumer research timelines from weeks or months to just hours.

Intellisia has completed over 130 projects and PoCs (proof-of-concept) with companies across various industries including food, retail, telecommunications, and furniture, converting more than 60% of its validation clients into annual contracts. Based on this investment, the company will build a global SaaS (software-as-a-service) platform to enter the U.S. and Japanese markets.

In the content sector, Accord Entertainment, the agency behind the virtual group "Miracle," secured a pre-Series A investment of 2 billion won. Lucky Studio, operator of the finance and economics content channel "Kim-jakga TV," attracted strategic investment to expand its YouTube-centric business structure into a financial media platform.

Beviewful, operator of the AI social app "Churup," will accelerate its expansion into U.S. and Japanese markets based on its pre-Series A funding. New Heritage, a seafood startup that received seed funding, will pursue overseas distribution network expansion and seaweed R&D.

A VC industry executive stated, "Significant funds flowed to companies that concretely demonstrated product supply, customer acquisition, Yangsan potential, and overseas market entry plans." The executive added, "As companies in the space and advanced materials sectors continue to enter commercialization stages, investment trends centered on deep tech will persist through the second half of the year."

[MoneyToday startup media platform 'Unicorn Factory']