Naver's startup investment organization D2SF (center director Yang Sang

Naver's startup investment organization D2SF (center director Yang Sang-hwan, photo) has already invested more than the total number of investments last year in the first half of this year. In particular, it is focusing its efforts on strengthening the startup ecosystem by actively discovering startups that are in contact with business areas focused on by Naver, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics, and sponsoring hackathons for startups.

According to the information technology (IT) industry on the 12th, Naver D2SF made 10 investments in the first half of this year based on publicly available investments. In six months, the number of investments in one year last year has already exceeded nine.

It is interpreted that the number of investments has increased as the discovery of start-up teams has been strengthened in the early days of this year. Naver seems to be expanding its contact with startups in terms of investment and ecosystem support to keep up with the rapidly changing trend of startups in the AI era.

The field of investment is also similar to the industry group that Naver is focusing on future food. In fact, when looking at startups invested by Naver D2SF in the first half of the year, AI, robotics, and commerce stand out.

Naver D2SF has invested in "Clon Labs," an agent AI start-up that predicts users' next judgment, and "Chameleon," which develops robots specializing in hotel housekeeping along with AI technology-related startups such as AI Red Team and Security Start-up Am Intelligence, which develops guardrail technology.

Last month, Naver D2SF also made a new investment in "Buy Me," a startup that combines AI technology in the cross border commerce area where overseas products are purchased.

In addition, it has been confirmed that Naver has boldly invested in places where even early startups enter the global market. In the first half of the year, Naver D2SF's new investment and follow-up investments were both start-ups that developed businesses in global markets such as North America or started overseas.

An official from Naver D2SF explained, "As the market is quickly reorganized into global units, Naver D2SF is also investing heavily in teams that verify products and organizations in the global market from the beginning."

In addition to investment, Naver is expanding exchanges with startups by supporting startup ecosystem activities. This is because more and more founders are jumping into startups using AI native as a weapon as AI technology lowers barriers to product development. It is confirmed that more than 300 teams applied for the campus technology start-up contest held by Naver in the university district in the first half of this year, which is about three times higher than the previous year.