Korean AI service startup Wrtn Technologies said Wednesday it has closed a Series C round worth roughly 100 billion won ($72.23 million), valuing the five-year-old company at more than 1 trillion won and making it the first Korean AI service startup to cross that mark.
Who's in the round
Coreline Ventures and Eugene Asset Management joined as new investors, alongside existing backers Goodwater Capital, Antler Global, Woori Venture Partners and the Korea Development Bank. Coreline Ventures managing partner Osuke Honda described Wrtn as "a global phenomenon," pointing to the company's growth curve and its ecosystem impact in Korea, Japan and the United States. Wrtn has now raised 230 billion won in total funding.
The revenue engine: OOC and Crack
Wrtn's flagship wrtn AI portal gives more than five million monthly active users free access to GPT, Claude and Gemini in Korean, but the business runs on paid products. The AI entertainment content platform OOC launched in North America in May 2026 and cleared 10 billion won in monthly revenue within three months, with overseas sales already exceeding domestic. Wrtn also monetises the Crack character chat platform. Total revenue this year is expected to top 200 billion won, up from 47.1 billion won in 2025.
Safety and self-regulation
Wrtn is layering governance onto its consumer AI push. In July the company stood up a user committee of AI ethics, philosophy and law experts, and is working with the Korea Internet Self-Governance Organization on self-regulatory guidelines for AI character chatbot services. CEO Lee Se-young said the round would fund "global expansion and further advance our services" while "accelerating our growth as a provider of safe and trustworthy AI services."
Why the round matters
The Series C lands as Korean AI capital continues to flow toward consumer-facing platforms with proven overseas revenue. It follows other 2026 Korean AI raises including XPeng Robotics' $900 million Series A and the $500 billion SK Group–NVIDIA AI factory partnership as Seoul emerges as a key node for foundation-model deployment.
Reporting based on coverage from The Korea Times, Bloomberg and Reuters.