Upstage Acquires AI Agent Platform Company "Timely"

Full-Scale Launch of AI Agent Business Based on Proprietary LLM 'Solar'

Upstage announced on June 9 that it has acquired Timely, a generative artificial intelligence (AI) multi-platform company. With this acquisition, Upstage plans to launch its AI agent business in earnest.

Timely operates the AI platform 'TimelyAI' (formerly TimelyGPT), which allows anyone to build AI agents for work without separate coding. Based on various large language models (LLMs), it provides prompt-based features, image and video generation, document conversion, and other AI functionalities needed for work. Currently, it is being used by local governments and public and educational institutions across the country, including Seoul's volume-based AI service, 'SeoulAIChat'.

Upstage announced on the 9th that it has acquired Timely, a generative artificial intelligence (AI) multi-platform company. Seunghoon Kim, CEO of Upstage (left), and Daehwan Kim, CEO of Timely, are taking a commemorative photo at the contract signing ceremony held at Upstage's Gangnam office. Upstage

Through this acquisition, Upstage will expand its AI agent business by leveraging TimelyAI equipped with its proprietary LLM, 'Solar'. The company explained that the combination of Timely’s distribution know-how, proven in public and educational sectors, and Upstage’s technological capabilities will enable anyone to achieve customized work automation using AI.

Upstage also plans to diversify its business by promoting the expansion of the AI ecosystem through this acquisition. Previously, Upstage acquired AXZ, the operator of the portal site 'Daum', expanding channels to distribute its own AI models. By adding Timely to its portfolio, the company aims to accelerate the spread of the AI ecosystem from its existing business-to-business (B2B) industrial base to include public, educational, and general users.

Daehwan Kim, CEO of Timely, stated, "The combination of Upstage and Timely will elevate the breadth and depth of real-world adoption in Korea’s AI industry to the next level. We will lead the era of easily usable AI agents, where anyone can access all the AI they need in one place."

Seunghoon Kim, CEO of Upstage, said, "Competition in the AI industry will no longer be about performance alone, but about how quickly and deeply models are deployed in real-world settings to get work done. Through this merger, we aim to enhance the tangible effectiveness of AI for a wide range of users, including companies and institutions, and to raise the AI competitiveness of the entire nation to a higher level."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.