ETRI spinoff Blue Tile Lab eyes Kosdaq listing after rapid growth from lab idea to W9.7b in investment

A startup born from a government researcher's idea has secured nearly 10 billion won ($7.43 million) in investment and is now preparing to list on the Kosdaq. The case is being cited as a model of how core technologies held by public research institutions, combined with commercialization and demonstration support from a special research and development zone, can drive company growth.

The Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) and the Innopolis Foundation said Wednesday that Blue Tile Lab, an ETRI spinoff, is expanding into the biotech sector after establishing itself in semiconductors, secondary batteries and displays — driven by AI machine vision and ultrashort-pulse laser technology.

Blue Tile Lab was founded in 2016 by Kim Hyung-woo, a former ETRI researcher.

The company entered the field of AI machine vision inspection solutions for semiconductor back-end processes, developing technology that uses AI to detect microscopic defects in products and classify their types. By applying its own machine vision system and deep learning technology, it cut inspection time on mass production lines from eight weeks to two. It later extended its technology to secondary batteries and displays.

A new growth engine came from ETRI's core laser technology. ETRI contributed ultrashort-pulse laser technology to Blue Tile Lab through initiatives including its commercialization division's Unicorn Project, and supported follow-on commercialization efforts. It also dispatched three researchers to the company and backed prototype development, testing, certification and market development through a joint commercialization lab called 1-TEAM LAB.

Through this collaboration, Blue Tile Lab became the first company in South Korea to develop a semiconductor light-emitting device-based near-infrared 920-nanometer femtosecond laser. A femtosecond laser generates extremely short pulses of light on the scale of one quadrillionth of a second, enabling highly precise material processing with minimal heat impact — making it useful in semiconductors, displays and secondary batteries.

While ETRI supported the startup's founding and acquisition of core technology, the Innopolis Foundation took over for subsequent growth.

Building on the ultrashort-pulse laser technology it received from ETRI, Blue Tile Lab registered as a research institute company in 2022. A research institute company is a public technology commercialization vehicle unique to special R&D zones, established within those zones to directly commercialize technologies from public research institutions. Companies with this status can receive a range of project support and tax benefits from the Innopolis Foundation.

The foundation supported technology advancement and productization through technology commercialization (R&BD) projects in 2023 and 2024. Since 2025, it has been supporting multiphoton microscope demonstration, AI technology development and safety verification through its large-scale demonstration scale-up program and AI big-tech R&BD initiative.

The results show up in sales and hiring. Blue Tile Lab's revenue more than doubled from 2.7 billion won in 2023 to 5.6 billion won in 2024, while its workforce grew more than threefold, from 15 employees in 2022 to 47 as of July this year.

The company has also accelerated its fundraising. It secured 1.7 billion won through ETRI Holdings, a wholly owned subsidiary of ETRI, then raised 5 billion won in a Series A round and 3 billion won in a Series B round, bringing total investment to 9.7 billion won.

Blue Tile Lab currently supplies AI inspection solutions and laser sources to production lines at major large companies and is in the final stages of a pre-IPO equity investment round. It plans to pursue a technology-exception listing on the Kosdaq next year.

Jeong Hee-kwon, chairman of the Innopolis Foundation, said translating excellent public research technologies into company growth requires coordinated collaboration linking researcher discovery, startup formation, technology advancement and demonstration. "We will further strengthen the virtuous-cycle ecosystem in which public technologies grow in the market and lead to new innovation by connecting the capabilities of innovators within the special zones," he said.