[Edaily Marketin Soyoung Park Reporter] "By leveraging artificial intelligence (AI), investment analysts should actually increase the 'depth of their deliberation' so they can examine each startup more closely and ask better questions."

Domestic venture capital (VC) firms and accelerators (ACs) are rolling out AI-based investment systems, such as “AI investment analysts,” one after another. Amid this trend, Lee In-sung, a director at Bluepoint Partners, emphasized the need to focus even more on the essence of investing. E-Daily recently met with him to discuss the role of investment firms in the AI era and how his firm plans to utilize its proprietary investment management platform.

Director Lee In-sung leads the “LATTICE” project—the firm’s proprietary investment management platform—at Bluepoint Partners, a domestic investment firm specializing in deep tech. Director Lee made it clear that the ultimate goal is not to turn LATTICE into yet another AI investment analyst. Rather than drawing a line between the roles of humans and AI, the firm intends to naturally integrate AI into its workflows, using it to deepen the firm’s level of deliberation throughout the process.

Emphasizing “Deeper, Not Faster”… A Decade of Accumulated Data Sets Bluepoint Apart

Bluepoint had been laying the groundwork to systematically accumulate and utilize investment data even before the AI boom took off in earnest. For several years, the firm has employed an in-house development team to consolidate information scattered across Excel spreadsheets and other sources, converting investment-related data into a database (DB).

The name “Lattice”—meaning a grid—was chosen with the intention of connecting various data points, such as startup and investment information, to create new value. Bluepoint began fully utilizing this platform in the second half of 2022.

Director Lee explained that while the adoption of AI screening systems is spreading throughout the investment industry, Bluepoint’s approach is somewhat different. Rather than screening more potential portfolio companies faster, AI should assist investment analysts so they can focus more on the essence of investing.

“Internally, there is a consensus that human judgment is more important than AI,” the director said, adding, “This is because investment analysts are the ones who constantly deliberate and ask the right questions.” He continued, “Therefore, when we introduced the AI platform to our firm, we focused not merely on increasing investment efficiency but on helping analysts deepen the quality of their deliberations.”

This philosophy is the result of careful consideration not only from the investor’s perspective but also from that of the startups. He pointed out, “Startups want investment firms to properly evaluate their teams based on their own capabilities and philosophy.”

Moving Beyond Company Discovery and Management to Advanced ‘Predictive Models’

The data Bluepoint has accumulated over a long period is what enabled the firm to take this direction. For the past decade or so, the firm has been discovering and investing in early-stage technology companies. The firm’s accumulated judgments and deliberation processes have been systematically compiled into data. Based on this, the firm built a “golden dataset” that reflects its investment philosophy and decision-making criteria.

One of Bluepoint’s slogans is “First Investor, Second Team.” This means that while becoming the first investor in early-stage tech companies, the firm aims to act not merely as a financial investor (FI) but as another member of the founding team. Investment analysts examine not only whether the technology itself is excellent but also what significance it holds in the capital markets. They also meticulously analyze the potential impact of the technology’s development and advancement.

“I don’t believe we’re in an era where the mere ability to create something is a competitive advantage,” said the director. “What matters is domain knowledge and experience, and how you apply them to solve problems.” He continued, “Even if an outstanding AI developer builds a system, the fit with our firm’s investment philosophy must ultimately be found internally.”

Based on this corporate philosophy and these criteria, Lattice supports the full range of investment analyst duties, including △identifying companies △reviewing investments △and managing the portfolio. Specifically, it matches startups with individual analysts based on their areas of interest and investment track records. In doing so, it summarizes and organizes company information according to Bluepoint’s standards. It also alerts analysts when existing portfolio companies show warning signs or undergo changes. Additionally, it provides comparative analysis between companies.

Director Lee viewed the current stage as “Data to Action.” This is the stage of linking the data already accumulated to actual investment execution and decision-making. The next stage Bluepoint is preparing for is “Data to Intelligence.” At this stage, the firm plans to move beyond simple management by linking global industry and technology trends, as well as external research, to investment data. It is expected to add features for predicting future growth potential and new investment areas.

“It makes no sense to simply feed all research into Lattice,” he said. “I believe what matters is which data to use, how to utilize it, and what research methods to employ.” He added, “We plan to incorporate models that can predict the areas of interest to individual investment analysts or our firm, the sectors we’ve already invested in, the future growth potential of our portfolio companies, and the new areas our firm needs to explore.”

Bluepoint is moving in this direction based on the belief that, as the use of AI expands, the attitude of investment firms toward founders becomes increasingly important. The firm’s investment analysts review 2,000 to 3,000 companies annually. However, only a fraction of these companies actually lead to investments. The investment business itself involves constantly evaluating and judging countless companies. He believed that combining AI with this process could inadvertently weaken the human element in the investment process.

“Making good use of AI is a matter of method and form, not the essence itself,” he said. “As AI becomes more sophisticated and permeates our daily lives, we must instead focus on the investment firm’s fundamental role: respecting founders, adding our imagination to their dreams, and helping them dream even bigger.”