[Edaily Marketin Reporter Soyoung Park ] This week (July 27–31), startups in various fields—including materials, components, and robotics—secured investments from venture capital (VC) firms and accelerators (ACs). In particular, “MID,” a company specializing in aerospace components, drew attention by securing a Series A investment worth 15.7 billion won. The company plans to focus on internalizing the supply chain for components needed by the domestic aerospace industry.

“MID,” a company specializing in aerospace electronic components

MID,

a company specializing in

aerospace components, has successfully secured a Series A investment worth 15.7 billion won. Existing investors DSC Invest and Schmidt participated in this round. Additionally, new investors including the Korea Development Bank, Medici Investment, IBK Capital, the Korea Credit Guarantee Fund, POSCO Technology Investment, and Pioneer Investment participated. With this, the company’s cumulative investment raised has reached 17.7 billion won.

Founded in 2018, MID is Korea’s first company specializing in aerospace electronic components. Its core businesses include the development and manufacturing of aerospace-grade electronic components (EEE), aerospace-grade component up-screening test technology, and aerospace product warranty consulting. Through its aerospace-grade component testing and procurement (CPPA) platform, the company provides component procurement and technical support to domestic and international aerospace clients.

The company plans to allocate the funds from this investment toward expanding its capabilities in semiconductor packaging and ceramic package manufacturing. By November, it will establish a 2,000-pyeong aerospace package manufacturing line at the Pyeongchon Industrial Complex in Daejeon. It will also advance the mass production process technology for HTCC ceramic packages and install the necessary equipment. The company plans to integrate the domestic and international customer network and product warranty capabilities secured through its existing CPPA business with ceramic package manufacturing to establish a supply chain that spans from component testing and procurement to manufacturing and verification. It will also gradually expand its business scope into the commercial and defense sectors. By 2029, the company plans to establish a production base for ceramic components used in semiconductor test equipment.

Plantner, a company specializing in eco-friendly materials

Plantner, a company specializing in eco-friendly materials that is pursuing the localization and commercialization of alginic acid—the world’s second-largest marine bio-material—has secured pre-Series A funding. Coolidge Corner Investment served as the lead investor. CNT Tech joined as a new investor alongside Impact Square, Hana Financial Group-Qunesti, and Yuhan-Kimberly-MYSC. The investors highly valued Plantner’s technological capabilities in transforming the current structure of reliance on imports by utilizing domestically sourced seaweed. They recognized the company’s high growth potential through integration with various industries, including biotechnology, medical devices, and beauty.·

Founded in 2024, Plantner is a marine biomaterials company that extracts and refines useful components from discarded or neglected, underutilized seaweed and develops them into customized materials tailored to the needs of specific industries through application technologies such as formulation and polymerization. In particular, the company has secured differentiated competitiveness in the market by addressing the structural limitations of the domestic marine biomaterials industry—which, despite possessing world-class seaweed production infrastructure, has long relied on imports—through the localization of alginic acid.

Plantner has collaborated with numerous large and mid-sized companies, public institutions, and startups to apply its technologies to target industries such as biotechnology, medical devices, and beauty. The company has conducted research on customized, modified materials tailored to the needs of these industries, as well as new polymer-based materials with enhanced physical properties. Furthermore, by expanding its capabilities in natural product materialization to the agricultural sector, Plantner is currently developing a business in Vietnam focused on organic fertilizers specialized for soil improvement.

Based on this investment, Plantner plans to establish a mass production facility for alginate in Korea. It also intends to expand its research on customized modifications for target industries. Through these efforts, the company aims to accelerate the domestic production and commercialization of alginate materials. Furthermore, it plans to gradually expand into global markets, including the United States.

'Robai,' Developer of AI Robot Control Platform

Robai, a

developer of AI robot control platforms

, has secured seed funding from Korea Investment Accelerator (KIA). The investment amount was not disclosed. KIA highly valued Robai as a team with the technical capabilities to solve the final control domain—where robot AI decisions are implemented on actual hardware.

Based on “AI self-exploration” technology—where robots autonomously learn their own joint structures, sensors, and movements—Robai is developing “Robot Academy,” a general-purpose robot control platform. The goal is to overcome the limitations of the existing approach, which requires redesigning the control system every time the robot type changes.

The company’s core technology involves three AI models—behavior recognition, motor babbling, and body modeling—that learn from one another, enabling robots to understand their own physical structure and movements without human intervention. This supports the universal execution of high-level commands generated by the Robot Foundation Model (RFM) across various robot types.

With this investment, Robai will advance its autonomous navigation technology. The company plans to conduct technology validation using physical robots and secure R&D personnel. Its strategy is to expand its application areas, starting with industrial robots and moving on to service robots, humanoids, and soft robots.