Upstage, a Korean generative AI startup, has become Korea’s first AI unicorn, surpassing a 1 trillion won corporate valuation after closing a first tranche of its Series C at 180 billion won (about $125.9 million), bringing total funding to roughly 400 billion won.

The round was led by Saj Partners, with wide participation from existing investors and a slate of new backers including Hyundai Motor, Kia, and others.

The Series C round was led by Sages Partners in Silicon Valley, with participation from both returning investors such as Premier Partners, Shinhan Venture Investment, Mirae Asset Venture Investment, KB Securities and InterVest, and new backers including Axiom Asia, Hyundai Motor, Kia, Woori Venture Partners, and others.

The fresh capital is earmarked to accelerate product development, scale operations, and expand international partnerships and markets.

Upstage builds industry-focused AI solutions on its in-house Solar large language model and Document Parse AI, including Dokpa-mo Independent Foundation Model project involvement led by the Ministry of Science and ICT.

Its flagship products are Solar, the company's proprietary LLM, and Document Parse, an AI-powered document processing tool.

Since its founding in 2020, Upstage has posted over 130% annual revenue growth, driven by industry-specific AI solutions built on Solar and Document Parse.

CEO Kim Seong-hun framed the funding as market validation and emphasized competing globally through revenue growth and proprietary AI models, not just valuation.

Kim reiterated the goal of building world-class AI models that prove their value through revenues and international expansion.

Post-funding plans include expanding GPU infrastructure, hiring top talent domestically and internationally, and pushing into overseas markets such as the United States and Japan.

In the prior year, Upstage reported 24.8 billion won in sales and 30.5 billion won in operating losses as it scales toward revenue growth.

Total cumulative funding now stands around 400 billion won (about $279.7 million), with rounds including a 31.6 billion won Series A in 2021, a 100 billion won Series B in 2024, and a 62 billion won Series B bridge in 2025.