Upstage, which has its roots in South Korea, but has expanded into the US and has a base in California, has bagged $72m in a Series B round. The money will be spent on expanding its Solar LLM system as well as its Document AI OCR and data extraction capability.
With this latest investment, Upstage has now raised over $100m since its founding in October 2020, making it the most-funded South Korean AI software startup company in history.
At first glance it may not seem to be connected to legal work, beyond the general doc AI, but in fact it has done some innovative projects in the law. For example, it has partnered with LawTalk, a local legal tech app, to develop a legal LLM specifically for the Korean legal ecosystem, processing case precedents and legal documents to support legal research and applications.
Elsewhere in the market, Upstage’s flagship Solar LLM has already delivered use cases across major enterprises in several industrial domains. Available via on-premises as well as API integration through platforms like Amazon SageMaker JumpStart, Solar provides ‘a versatile and accessible alternative to larger, more resource-intensive models developed by tech giants’, it said.
The company has also made significant inroads with its Document AI solution, powered by OCR technology. ‘This solution has found strong demand in high-growth industries like finance and healthcare, with clients including Samsung and Hanwha,’ they added.
Sung Kim, co-founder and CEO of Upstage, concluded: ‘We’re thrilled to extend our strong success in South Korea to a global audience. This funding will help us build the world’s best generative AI model and deliver the ultimate ‘AGI for work’ solution to businesses worldwide.’
The Series B round was led by a group of prominent investors, including SK Networks, KT, Korea Development Bank, Shinhan Venture Investment, Hana Ventures, Mirae Asset Venture Investment, and Industrial Bank of Korea. Existing investors, such as SBVA (formerly SoftBank Ventures Asia), Primer Sazze Partners, Company K Partners, and Premier Partners, also participated in the round, reaffirming their confidence in Upstage’s vision and capabilities.
It will be very interesting to see where Upstage gets to in the US, especially in relation to legal work.
Legal Innovators California conference, June 4 + 5 – San Francisco
The new wave of legal AI and how it will change the inhouse sector will be central to the Legal Innovators California conference, Jun 4 + 5.
The event will take place in San Francisco with Day One focused on law firms, and Day Two on inhouse and legal ops. We have many great speakers attending the event, along with a group of pioneering legal tech companies and service providers – you can see some more about our speakers here.
For ticket information, please see here. Don’t miss out on what will be a great event in the heart of America’s tech world.
