[Edaily Reporter Shin Ha-yeon ] On the 3rd, independent research firm Value Finder assessed that OBZEN Inc.(417860)is expected to make a leap forward as an AI data platform company through the expansion of its business portfolio via the acquisition of Zalesia and its collaboration with Naver Cloud. In particular, the firm projected that the AI security gateway and subscription-based business intelligence (BI) businesses will serve as drivers of mid- to long-term growth.

Jeon Woo-bin, a senior researcher at Value Finder, stated, “We are focusing on the three-pronged momentum of M&A, cloud, and AI driven by the collaboration with Naver Cloud.”

Researcher Jeon explained, “Following the acquisition of Zalesia last December, consolidated revenue for the first quarter reached 13.1 billion won, with the Zalesia business division newly reflected in the financials, leading to significant revenue growth.” He added, “Although a temporary operating loss occurred during the merger and initial integration process, the Zalesia business division is understood to be maintaining a stable profit trend.”

He continued, “Through the merger, the company has strengthened its expertise as a full-stack AI data platform provider by combining AI technology with data engineering capabilities, and its customer base—which had been concentrated in the financial sector—has diversified into manufacturing, distribution, and services.” He noted, “We anticipate synergies from this diversification of clients and cross-selling opportunities.”

The AI security business was also presented as a new growth driver. Researcher Jeon explained, “As the adoption of enterprise AI gains momentum, data leaks and shadow IT arising from the use of external large language models (LLMs) are emerging as common security concerns across the industry,” adding, “We have strengthened our capabilities in ontology-based data masking technology through experience with various client projects and continuous research and development (R&D).” He went on to assess, “Now is the moment when we can expect the expansion of our business into the AI security gateway sector and the fruits of those efforts.”

He also highlighted the collaboration with Naver Cloud and the global BI company Strategy as a key investment point. Researcher Jeon noted, “Our partnership with Naver Cloud takes on greater significance when combined with our partnership with Strategy,” adding, “We reaffirmed our position as a key partner by receiving the ‘APAC Partner of the Year’ award from Strategy this year.”

He noted, “Given that Strategy is scaling back its on-premises offerings and transitioning to a subscription-based cloud model, it is highly likely that the company will evolve into a subscription-based model providing global BI as SaaS on top of Naver Cloud’s infrastructure,” "In sectors such as the public and financial sectors, as well as national strategic and infrastructure industries—where the adoption of foreign cloud services is limited—the company is expected to serve as a key driver of mid- to long-term growth through its differentiated positioning of ‘domestic cloud + global BI,’" he emphasized.