Korea Development Bank and Atinum Host 'Next Round'... "Aiming to Connect the Physical AI Ecosystem"

Event Held at KDB Headquarters IR Center on the 25th
Holiday Demonstrates Humanoid Robot 'Friday'
IR Sessions Held for Four Physical AI Companies

Korea Development Bank and Atinum Investment held the 'KDB Next Round' event and organized IR (Investor Relations) sessions for startups focusing on Physical Artificial Intelligence (AI). This year marks the 10th anniversary of the event.

On the 25th, at the IR Center of the Korea Development Bank (KDB) headquarters in Yeouido, Seoul, the Korea Development Bank and atinuminvest held the "KDB NextRound Physical AI Special Round" event.
Photo by atinuminvest

On August 25 at the IR Center in the headquarters of Korea Development Bank in Yeouido, Seoul, Korea Development Bank and Atinum Investment hosted the 'KDB Next Round Physical AI Special Round' event. The event was attended by Taijeong Yoon, Head of Innovation and Growth Finance at Korea Development Bank, Doojin Maeng, CEO of Atinum Investment, other representatives from both companies, and CEOs from four Physical AI firms, including Kiyeong Song, CEO of Holiday Robotics. Atinum Investment was selected in May as a general partner (GP) for the National Growth Fund (indirect investment field) large-cap league. Atinum plans to establish a new fund worth 1 trillion won within the year.

In his welcoming address, Mr. Yoon stated, "For Korea to gain an advantage in the Physical AI competition, I believe we need an ecosystem that tightly connects innovative startups pursuing new technologies and investors. I hope the Physical AI Special Round will play a key role in facilitating these connections, and KDB Next Round is committed to continuing our joint efforts as we have over the last ten years."

CEO Maeng remarked, "Physical AI is a convergent industry that integrates AI with the real, physical world, and though it is now entering its initial formative stage, significant time and capital will be required to achieve field application and reliability. Proactive, large-scale investments, patience, and efficient growth guidance will be essential." He added, "I hope to see strong interest in the inspiring challenges taken on by Physical AI entrepreneurs."

Delivering a keynote under the topic of 'Commercialization of Physical AI and Humanoid Robots,' CEO Song demonstrated the industrial humanoid robot 'Friday' on site. 'Friday' mimicked human hand movements by bending each finger joint individually and also showcased actions such as moving cargo in a logistics center and operating a drill.

At the KDB Next Round Physical AI Special Round held on the 25th, Holiday Robotics' humanoid robot "Friday" demonstrated bending its finger joints. Photo by Seoyul Hwang chestnut@

IR sessions for startups in the field of Physical AI were also conducted. Junghui Park, CEO of RideFlux, an autonomous driving software solutions company, explained, "The middle-mile logistics sector, which the company is heavily interested in, is characterized by the repeated operation of a large number of vehicles, offering strong advantages for early commercialization." Additionally, Mr. Park highlighted, "Our company’s strength lies in possessing technology that enables fully autonomous driving from departure to arrival at the logistics center. We are the only company in Korea to have obtained permits for large truck operations on urban roads." RideFlux is currently undergoing the KOSDAQ technical special listing process.

Joonha Kim, CEO of industrial humanoid robot company Deeden Robotics, said, "We are developing field-specialized robots for irregular and heavy-load environments such as shipbuilding, ship operation, construction, and plant industries. We are manufacturing three types: Spider (quadrupedal walking robot), Walker (bipedal walking robot), and Humanoid, each customized for specific industrial sites." Deeden Robotics participated in NVIDIA's 'GTC 2026 Opening' and was also invited to Amazon's 'MARS 2026' conference.

Byuli Choi, CEO of real-time AI motion capture company Movin, noted, "Movin utilizes its proprietary 'Movin Tracing' lidar and camera to digitize human movements in real time. Compared to traditional motion capture, which is cost- and labor-intensive, our technology achieves 96% accuracy and is currently being used as a data collection tool in theme parks, live shows, and for humanoid robot datasets." Movin was also featured at NVIDIA's GTC 2026.

Chiweon Lee, CEO of medical robotics startup MediIntech, introduced the company's proprietary flexible robotic endoscope and surgical robots. Mr. Lee stated, "Building on our already-commercialized robotic endoscope, we are planning to extend our scope to non-invasive endoscopic surgical robots and flexible single-port surgical robots."

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