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In the era of ‘AX’, money is pouring into ventures that will change the manufacturing industry [Geeks]
작성일 2024.01.09조회수 3,196

Manufacturing AI INEEJI attracts KRW 8.1 billion in investment
Movik Lab and Amber Road also secure profitability through funding
contracts with large corporations

Overseas manufacturing AI unicorns emerge
US Spark Cognition is valued at KRW 1.8 trillion

 
Venture capital (VC) funds are pouring into AI startups in the manufacturing sector. The explanation is that the related market is growing as major manufacturing conglomerates are focusing on digital transformation (AX) using AI technology. Overseas, 'AX Unicorn Company' (an unlisted company with a corporate value of over 1 trillion won) has emerged, securing investment worth hundreds of billions of won.
 

A lot of money for manufacturing AI startups

INEEJI, an industrial AI solution company, announced on the 9th that it had completed attracting investment worth 8.1 billion won. INEEJI is a company that provides customized optimal process solutions to large corporations' steel, chemical, and cement factories based on AI engines. The AI ​​algorithm accurately predicts the temperature of the molten metal inside the furnace, which employees had previously checked by taking photos at the steel plant.
 
Kim Jin-soo, head of KT Investment, who led the investment, explained, “We highly evaluated AI technology that can solve the problem of labor reduction and the need for digital transformation (DX) faced by the manufacturing industry.”

Movik Lab, which predicts industrial facility failures and prevents damage using AI, also recently received an investment of 1.5 billion won. The development of a fault diagnosis solution that collects ultrasonic signals that are inaudible to the human ear and received technical verification from LG Display and Samsung SDI led to high evaluation. Amber Road, which provides manufacturing AI analysis solutions, InterX, an autonomous factory operation solution operator, and Deepfine, which applies Vision AI to large corporate manufacturing plants, also recently succeeded in raising funds. Daniel Kim, a SparkLab reviewer who invested in Amber Road, said, “We decided to invest considering the fact that the smart manufacturing market is growing at an average annual rate of 15%.”
 

Growing interest in smart factory growth

Until recently, funds were being raised in software startups using generative AI, such as ChatGPT, but recently the market atmosphere has changed dramatically. The explanation is that VCs' attention has shifted to manufacturing AI as the 'bubble theory' that few software startups are showing results and the target market is unclear is gaining strength.
An official in the investment industry said, “Although AI apps that are widely used have high utility, it is rare for the developer to possess the original technology.” He added, “It is difficult to survive for a long time without building a self-sustaining profit model.”
 
On the other hand, among AI startups, the manufacturing solutions and robotics sectors are directly linked to the growth of the smart factory market, so investment risk is low. The fact that an increasing number of companies are proactively adopting AI due to the burden of labor costs and a decrease in the working population also appears to be a positive factor for manufacturing AI startups. According to Trend Force, the global smart manufacturing market size is expected to grow from $305 billion in 2021 to $455 billion in 2025.

Already overseas, manufacturing AI startups are receiving a lot of money and growing into unicorn companies. Mujin, a Japanese industrial AI platform company, recently secured funding of $140 million (approximately 184.1 billion won). Spark Cognition, an American AI smart factory startup, was recognized as a unicorn company with a corporate value of $1.4 billion (about 1.83 trillion won).
기사 URL https://www.hankyung.com/article/2024010925821
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