[Edaily Marketin Soyoung Park Reporter] This week (July 6–10), startups across various sectors—including medical AI services, nuclear fusion power, and e-commerce platforms—secured investments from venture capital (VC) firms and accelerators (ACs).

In particular, “Wort Intelligence,” a company facilitating the AI transformation of the domestic intellectual property (IP) market, drew attention by successfully securing 16.5 billion won in Series B funding. This market has long been known to be dominated by global data providers. Investors noted that the company provides AI solutions optimized for the Korean language and the workflows of major South Korean corporations.

‘Wort Intelligence’ Aiding the IP Industry’s Digital Transformation

Wart Intelligence (Wart), an AI company specializing in the patent and IP vertical, has secured 16.5 billion won in Series B funding. This round was led by Altos Ventures, with Albatross Investment participating as a follow-on investor. Altos Ventures highlighted that Wart is a team that has been refining Korean patent and IP data with the greatest depth for nearly a decade.

Wart was founded in 2015 by CEO Yoon Jeong-ho, who holds both Korean patent attorney and U.S. attorney licenses. After launching its AI patent search service, Keyword, in 2016, the company has focused on this single domain for nearly a decade. Its flagship service is PlutoLM. This service is the first large language model in Korea trained exclusively on patent data.

Built on top of PlutoLM are Keyword, Keyword Insight, and agents for patent specifications and customized IP AI. When combined with WORT’s data and consulting offerings—DataGrid, Signal, Decision, and Intelligence Analysis—the product lineup expands to a total of eight. WORT currently provides services to approximately 3,000 large corporations, IP centers, and R&D departments and institutions in South Korea.

Studio Kiko, operator of an automated medical record generation service

Studio Kiko, which develops and operates “Neardoc”—an AI service that automatically generates medical records based solely on conversations between doctors and patients—has secured pre-Series A funding. The investment amount was not disclosed. Smilegate Investment, Korea Investment Accelerator, and Strong Ventures participated in this round.

Studio Kiko is a clinical AI startup. The company is led by CEO Kim Se-hoon, who co-founded the HR tech platform WantedLab and oversaw platform design and new business development; CTO Ryu Kyung-mook, who previously served as Head of Service Development at WantedLab; and CMO Lee Chang-min, a practicing orthopedic surgeon and former Severance Hospital physician.

NearDoc, Studio Kiko’s flagship service, listens in real time to conversations between doctors and patients in the examination room and automatically generates complete medical records (SOAP charts) without requiring any separate input. These records are then entered directly into the electronic medical record (EMR) system. This allows doctors to focus on their patients without the burden of charting. The company plans to allocate the funds from this investment toward expanding its talent pool and enhancing its services. Moving forward, it will also evolve its services into a Clinical Decision Support System (CDSS) and a Medical Operating System (Medical OS). Starting next year, the company will also pursue entry into non-English-speaking Asian markets.

Nuclear Fusion Power Startup ‘EternaFusion’

Nuclear fusion power startup EternaFusion has secured 2.3 billion won in seed funding. Company K, Bluepoint Partners, and Seoul National University Technology Holdings participated in this round. The exact investment amounts and company valuation by each investor remain undisclosed. Bluepoint highly praised the team for directly addressing the challenge of continuous operation—a key hurdle in commercial nuclear fusion power.

EternaFusion is developing “Tokamak Injection” technology, which continuously supplies plasma current from an external source. This approach enables the uninterrupted continuous operation required for commercial power plants by stably maintaining the plasma current inside the tokamak with high efficiency. The company applies Tokamak Injection technology for continuous operation to a spherical tokamak device, which is advantageous for miniaturizing fusion reactors. Through this, the company plans to become a game-changer in the next-generation energy market with its Compact Modular Fusion Reactor (COSMOS), capable of stable 24-hour operation.

The founding team of EternaFusion hails from Seoul National University’s VEST laboratory. Since 2011, they have been independently developing and researching VEST, South Korea’s only spherical tokamak-based fusion experimental device. Rather than merely conducting research, they have personally developed the equipment, accumulated experimental data, and operated the facility. The funds raised in this seed round will be primarily allocated to demonstrating the concept of tokamak injection and validating initial core technologies.

Cross-border Commerce Platform ‘Modpick’

ModePick, a cross-border shopping agency startup, has secured seed investment from Kakao Ventures and Ewha Womans University Technology Holdings. Kakao Ventures was impressed by the team’s combination of exceptional marketing skills and robust operational efficiency in the labor-intensive shopping agency market.

Modpick is an AI-agent-based cross-border commerce platform. It directly sources overseas brand products—such as premium fashion items and limited-edition goods not yet available in Korea—that are difficult to find through existing distribution channels, and connects them with Korean consumers. Only products purchased and inspected in-store by local buyers are shipped. Authentic receipts and invoices are transparently provided throughout the purchasing process. AI agents automatically match product database (DB) entries with receipts to generate complete customs clearance documents from the outset. As a result, customers can receive their items as early as 2–3 days after overseas shipment. Compared to standard purchasing agency services, shipping costs have been reduced by up to 65%, and delivery times by up to 80%.

Modpick plans to launch a “Global AI Autonomous Commerce” platform in the second half of this year, where AI agents will autonomously perform and continuously improve the entire e-commerce operation process. This encompasses product sourcing, listing, marketing banner management, customer service (CS), customer relationship management (CRM), customs document generation, and shipment tracking. The company is also accelerating its full-scale entry into the distribution business. Based on sales data accumulated over three years, its policy is to deliver the products consumers want safely and on time. It also plans to gradually expand the range of product categories it handles.

Ultra-Compact Imaging Hyperspectrometer ‘SPECTRAINTEL’

SPECTRAINTEL, a startup developing ultra-compact imaging hyperspectrometers, has secured seed investment from Kakao Ventures. Kakao Ventures highly valued the company’s potential for business expansion. Starting with astronomical observation devices that overcome technical limitations, the company is expected to expand into the defense market and deep space research market with products such as industrial alarms, tactical observation drones, and active decoy identification devices.

SPECTRAINTEL was founded by CEO Dong-ho Yoo, a current student in the Department of Physics at KAIST. CEO Yoo is regarded as a rare entrepreneur who has personally handled the entire process—from theoretical physics to AI, the fabrication of telescope and spectrometer hardware, and actual field measurements.

SpectralIntel is a deep-tech startup that provides customized solutions for industrial sites requiring material detection and identification. These solutions include ultra-compact hyperspectral imaging hardware, industry-specific spectral databases, and analysis software. Existing surveillance technologies have focused on improving temporal and spatial resolution. The company aims to go a step further by incorporating wavelength information to determine what a target is, its current state, and whether there are any signs of danger—all through 4D data.

As an initial product, SpectralIntel is developing the “ASTRO-HSI,” a hyperspectral adapter that can be mounted on standard astronomical equipment. This product is designed to be connected to existing telescopes to acquire wavelength-specific images and per-pixel spectral data of celestial objects. The company is targeting the astronomical equipment market as its initial entry point to rapidly secure real-world user data. Based on this, it plans to enhance the sophistication of its hyperspectral platforms for industrial and defense applications.

With this investment, Spectralintel plans to refine its prototype of an ultra-compact imaging hyperspectrometer and accelerate the recruitment of key talent. Furthermore, the company envisions gradually expanding its application scope, starting with the identification of missiles and launch vehicles, and moving on to industrial non-destructive testing, monitoring of environmentally hazardous substances, and foreign object detection in food and agriculture.

‘LIFT Vietnam,’ Operator of a Financial Welfare Platform

LIFT Vietnam, operator of the AI-based salary advance financial welfare platform “LIFT,” has secured seed funding from investors including Jones & Rocket. The company plans to seek additional investment before the end of the year.

LIFT is a fintech platform that enables manufacturing workers in Vietnam to immediately withdraw wages corresponding to hours already worked whenever needed, even before payday. The company aims to address the problem of workers relying on high-interest private loans due to a lack of cash flow before payday. Specifically, it provides a service that allows workers to receive an advance on their wages within the amount earned for hours already worked.

Lift currently has 10 manufacturing companies as clients. It plans to expand its client base to 20 companies by the third quarter of this year. The company will use this investment to accelerate service enhancement and market expansion. During the third quarter of this year, it plans to establish an AI-based credit limit assessment system and build an alternative credit scoring framework based on workers’ financial usage data. In addition, the company aims to expand its business scope from its current focus on southern Vietnam to northern regions such as Hanoi. It is also pursuing proof-of-concept (PoC) projects with global financial institutions.