In the realm of emerging artificial intelligence startups, South Korea lags behind China and India in terms of scale, a recent survey reveals.
On April 17, the Singapore-based tech news outlet Tech in Asia released a list of the Top 50 AI Startups in Asia receiving the most investment. China leads with 24 companies, followed by India with 10, and South Korea and Japan tied for third with 4 each.
Only startups that have received Series E or higher funding were included in this list. Typically, startups grow through Series A to C funding, with some receiving additional investments post-Series C depending on their business strategies.
The company receiving the most funding was Minimax from China, which is developing a Chinese version of ChatGPT. Minimax’s total funding to date amounts to US$850 million. It was followed by Baichuan Intelligent Technology, Enflame, and others. Israel’s AI21 Labs ranked fourth with US$272 million, with Indian startups also ranking in the top tiers.
The only South Korean AI startup in the top ten was Rebellions, an AI semiconductor startup, with a total investment of US$198 million. Another AI semiconductor developer under the SK Group, called SK on’s subsidiary Sapeon, ranked 16th with US$110 million. The AI logistics platform startup FASSTO received US$76 million, and the industrial autonomous driving startup Seoul Robotics received US$28.6 million. Japan also had four companies in joint third place with South Korea.
According to the AI Index 2024 report released by Stanford University on April 15 (local time), South Korea fell from 6th to 9th place in last year’s investment rankings, indicating that private sector investment in AI in South Korea is falling behind other countries.
In 2023, the private sector AI investment rankings were led by the United States with US$67.22 billion, followed by China with US$7.76 billion, and South Korea at 9th place with US$1.39 billion. Last year, South Korea invested US$3.1 billion, securing the 6th place.
