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Dream Labs, a U.S.-based startup founded by Korean entrepreneurs developing an AI foundation model for robots in everyday life, announced on the 20th that it has secured $90 million (approximately 120 billion won) in seed investment.
Jang Yo-el (CEO), a Korean in his 20s who co-founded Dream Labs last April, earned a bachelor's degree in computer engineering from Korea University and a master's degree in AI from KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology). He subsequently led research on robot models, including Project GR00T, at NVIDIA's advanced robotics research institute, the "GEAR Lab."
The other co-founders are also talents who worked alongside Jang (CEO) in advanced robotics research organizations at NVIDIA and Google DeepMind. This investment was led by U.S.-based B Capital, with participation from early-stage U.S. investors including Kindred Ventures, A. Capital, Unusual Ventures, SV Angel, Wing VC, and Scribble VC.
Adrian Aoun, who handled special projects at Google, also joined as an angel investor, while Base Ventures was the only Korean-affiliated investment firm to participate.
Dream Labs unveiled "Dream-1," a foundation model that converts robot camera footage and everyday English instructions into motor control commands. Dream-1 recorded the highest performance among evaluated models in independent testing by "RoboCove," which assesses robot AI capabilities.
A Dream Labs official stated, "Most industrial robots are designed to perform only a single task, meaning content learned by one robot cannot be transferred to another machine." The official added, "Teaching a robot a single task requires months of work, and introducing new tasks or hardware necessitates retraining from scratch."
Dream-1 operates by learning from videos of humans performing everyday tasks, predicting what will happen next, and determining the robot's actions accordingly. Because it acquires capabilities through general video rather than a specific machine, the company explained that it can be used universally across different robots.
Currently, Dream-1 enables robots equipped with two arms and parallel grippers to perform tabletop tasks, such as picking up and moving objects or folding laundry, without additional data training. Dream Labs plans to expand its support range to include wheeled mobile robots and dexterous multi-jointed robot hands.
The Dream API, released alongside Dream-1, supports robots in performing tasks even in new environments they have never encountered before. It is a product aimed at researchers and engineers. The company is currently collaborating with more than 20 hardware partners, including Unitree and Robotis.
Dream Labs plans to use the funds secured this time to expand the range of tasks performed by Dream-1 and the types of robots supported, as well as to secure computing resources.
Jang Yo-el (CEO) said, "A universal brain that can be used with any robot has not existed until now." He added, "Just as people do not have to relearn driving from scratch when they rent a car, we will enable new robots to acquire the ability to perform useful tasks within minutes through Dream-1."
Daisy Chai, General Partner at B Capital, stated, "Although the price of high-performance robot arms has dropped from the level of a luxury car to that of a high-spec laptop, robot intelligence has not advanced commensurately." She added, "Through Dream Labs, an era will come when everyone can enjoy high-performance robot models."
Yang Hyeong-jun, Managing Director at Base Ventures, said, "When I first met Jang (CEO), his vision of creating a world where people say 'connect it with Dream' in the robotics field, just as everyone today says 'look it up on GPT,' was impressive." He added, "We will actively provide support necessary for growth, such as customer connections and talent recruitment."
[MoneyToday startup media platform 'Unicorn Factory']
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