[Edaily Reporter Lee So-Hyun ] Naver (NAVER(035420)) D2SF has invested in TraceWeave, a startup that has developed Agent AI technology capable of understanding long contexts and performing multi-step tasks even in limited memory environments.

Naver D2SF announced on the 21st that it has made a new investment in TraceWeave, an on-device AI startup.

TraceWeave is a company that developed “Phase-TITAN,” a proprietary AI architecture designed to resolve memory bottlenecks in existing Transformer architectures.

In existing Transformer-based models, as the context to be processed grows longer, the key-value cache (KV-Cache) expands, leading to increased memory usage. In on-device environments such as smartphones, vehicles, and robots, implementing complex Agent AI agents is challenging due to constraints like memory, battery life, and heat generation.

Maintaining Consistent Memory Usage

TraceWeave’s Phase-TITAN is designed to maintain consistent memory usage even as the length of information to be processed increases.

Without relying on other open-source models, the company developed its own AI model, enabling it to understand long contexts and handle multi-step tasks even within limited device environments.

The company explains that this makes it possible to implement an Agent AI that calls external tools directly on the device—without cloud calls—interprets the results, and then determines the next course of action.

TraceWeave has also implemented its own demo that runs a multi-step agent on a smartphone using only the device’s CPU, without any cloud calls.

Paid PoC with Automotive Affiliates

Commercialization efforts are also underway. TraceWeave has completed a paid proof of concept (PoC) with the autonomous driving subsidiary of a global automotive group to analyze driving data, and is currently validating the performance of its in-vehicle agents with a global automotive electronics software company.

Going forward, the company plans to expand its scope of application to various device environments, including robots, drones, smart glasses, and wearable devices.

TraceWeave was co-founded in October 2025 by researchers with backgrounds at ETH Zurich, Google, and KAIST.

This seed round was led by Mirae Asset Capital and raised a total of approximately 3 billion won. The company was valued at approximately 30 billion won.

The company is currently based at Naver D2SF Gangnam and will use the funds raised to recruit talent and expand its business.

Yang Sang-hwan, Director of Naver D2SF, stated, “On-device AI is a core technology for implementing advanced AI across various device environments,” adding, “It also offers advantages in terms of reducing cloud call costs and enhancing privacy.”

He continued, “TraceWeave is a team that is innovating AI architecture to overcome the limitations of existing models and implement AI in on-device environments,” and emphasized, “We will continue to invest in core technologies necessary for next-generation devices, such as AI optimization and lightweighting.”