Seoul’s answer to the AI chatbot boom just got a lot more capital. Wrtn, the South Korean assistant maker, has closed a $72.2M Series C, according to Tech in Asia, a haul that lifts it past a 1 trillion won (about $722M) valuation.
The Korea Times put the round at $72M and said the fresh capital will fund global expansion of Wrtn’s generative AI assistant, which competes with the likes of OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Naver’s Clova X in the Korean market. Bloomberg valued the company higher, at around $870M, and local media have called it the country’s first consumer AI unicorn by the 1 trillion won yardstick.
Wrtn has carved out a following with Korean-language capabilities and integrations popular among local users, including work with NPU maker FuriosaAI and LG AI Research. Its growth comes as Seoul pushes to build a homegrown AI stack and reduce dependence on US models.
The round is one of the largest for a Korean AI consumer startup this year and a test of whether domestic champions can raise at global valuations. For founders watching from elsewhere in Asia, Wrtn’s path shows that language and local integration still offer a defensible wedge against US giants.
