[Edaily Marketin Song Seung-Hyeon Reporter] A virtual creator that doesn’t require a human actor has emerged. There is no pre-written script, nor is there an operator manipulating it in real time. Artificial intelligence (AI) hosts the broadcast on its own, converses with multiple viewers simultaneously, and builds a fan base. This is the “AI Creator” developed by AI entertainment tech startup UNX. Just six months after its founding, Kakao Ventures placed a bet on the company.

According to the venture capital (VC) industry on the 8th, Kakao Ventures, together with Schmidt and Mark & Company, led a seed investment round for UNX. This comes just six months after UNX was founded in January 2026.

Kim Kwang-min, CEO of UNX, was an early member of TikTok Korea and played a key role in driving the growth of the platform and its creator ecosystem. He previously served as Creative Director at ByteDance and held positions as Content Lead at Today’s House and Digital Producer at CJ ENM. Co-founder Jeong Dong-nyeok, Chief Product Officer (CPO), is an AI engine expert who holds a master’s degree in cognitive science from Sungkyunkwan University and previously served as CPO at Modern Lion. Director Kim Ji-ha, who oversees intellectual property (IP) content, also has experience planning content for ByteDance and Kakao’s emoji division. UnX defines itself as a team that has personally built every stage of the process—from discovering and nurturing creators to monetization.

The market UNX is targeting is currently uncharted territory. Virtual IP, AI companions, and live fandom—while these three markets are opening up simultaneously, there is still no player connecting them into a single ecosystem. Game and webtoon IPs are attractive, but fans can only watch and wait. Virtual creators build relationships, but if the performer leaves, the IP disappears along with them. AI character chats remain limited to one-on-one conversations and do not evolve into communities. UNX identifies the problem as the lack of an AI character that possesses all three elements—appeal, relationships, and community—simultaneously.

The solution is their proprietary “Fandom Engine.” Once a human sets the broad direction and operational guidelines for a broadcast, the AI generates context-appropriate dialogue and actions to lead the broadcast. With existing virtual creators where humans perform directly, the character’s tone fluctuates depending on the performer’s condition, but AI creators maintain a consistent personality and worldview. Another key difference from existing character chat services—which focus on one-on-one text conversations—is the ability to communicate with multiple viewers simultaneously, creating a “shared experience” during live broadcasts.

This structure grows stronger over time. As live streams and channel content accumulate, UnX’s proprietary data grows, and this data is fed back into the AI to enhance the character’s appeal and relational capabilities. This is an area where general-purpose large language models (LLMs) cannot compete. The world-building created through fan participation in the creative process is also accumulated as intellectual property (IP) assets. This is why UnX refers to itself as a “fandom engine—neither a studio nor a tech company.” The Fandom Engine is designed to be applied not only to UnX’s own IP but also to IP from external partners.

Currently, UnX operates its own IP—the AI agent character groups “AISA High School Streaming Club” and “Saju Oppa”—on platforms such as TikTok and YouTube. The company has recorded 63 hours of non-stop live streaming and reduced the lead time for producing new IP to within a single day. According to the company, it has seen significant repeat visits and sponsorship engagement with virtually no advertising spend. Overseas, AI streamers such as “Neuro-sama” and “Shizuku AI” are cited as similar examples. This indicates that the market is shifting beyond virtual characters acted out by humans to a stage where AI itself becomes a creator.

CEO Kim Kwang-min stated, “1NX is not just a company that excels at creating a single character; it is an AI entertainment technology company that builds systems to expand compelling IP into fan communities.” He added, “We will pioneer a culture in Korea—and expand it globally—where AI goes beyond being a creator that interacts with fans to become an artist and influencer that lives and breathes on its own.”