Upstage eyes $3.3B valuation as AI startup races toward year-end IPO

Upstage CEO Kim Sung-hoon appears set to lead a company valued at up to 5 trillion won (approximately $3.29 billion), with a year-end initial public offering that would cap six years since the AI startup's founding. The company is already moving to hire investor relations staff, signaling that IPO preparations are accelerating.

Kim is a prominent figure in South Korea's AI industry who developed the world's first hangul-based robotic search engine before serving as a professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and later joining Naver. He founded Upstage in 2020 and has since focused the company's efforts on AI projects, including developing its own large language model. The company has expanded rapidly after being selected last year for the government's national AI program.

According to IT industry sources Monday, Upstage has recently begun recruiting a manager to handle investor relations work — a move seen as preparation for the year-end IPO and an effort to staff the relevant team ahead of the listing.

In its job posting, Upstage said it "is currently preparing for an IPO and is on the verge of entering the capital markets," and that it is "looking for an IR officer to operate a disclosure and compliance framework that manages the legal obligations a listed company must fulfill."

The posting also said the hire would work directly with the company's CFO, overseeing all IR-related operations from pre-listing through post-listing.

Upstage reshuffled its C-suite earlier this year, most notably bringing in Jin Yun-jeong, a capital markets specialist from early investor SBVA, as CFO.

Existing executive Kwon Sun-il, formerly executive vice president for business, was elevated to chief strategy officer, while Ryu Han-na, who oversaw management support, became chief operating officer. The moves completed a six-member C-suite combining the three founding members — CEO Kim Sung-hoon, Chief Technology Officer Lee Hwal-seok and Chief Product Officer Park Eun-jeong — with dedicated finance, strategy and operations leadership.

Upstage is targeting a major IPO by year-end. Industry sources said the company's valuation came in at roughly 3.5 trillion won to 5 trillion won in recent institutional IR sessions. Upstage selected Mirae Asset Securities and KB Securities as lead underwriters late last year and is working through the necessary procedures to list on the Kospi in the second half of this year.

Industry observers credit Upstage's rapid growth to its AI technology. The company launched an AI-based optical character recognition service for printed documents in its early days, then established itself as a standout among AI startups with its in-house LLM, Solar. Its valuation received a significant boost when the government selected it as one of four companies to develop an independent AI foundation model under a state-led initiative.

Expectations of further expansion have added to the momentum. Upstage declared its ambition to become a "next-generation AI portal" earlier this year after acquiring Daum, the portal site previously owned by Kakao, with plans to combine its Solar LLM with Daum's search engine and content data. The company also decided June 9 to acquire Timely, an AI multi-platform firm, with a blueprint to accelerate its AI agent business by deploying a Timely AI product powered by Solar — mirroring its approach with Daum.