Mashup Ventures Hosts 'Mashup Atoms Day' to Share Deep Tech Investment Outlook

Invites representatives from major domestic investment institutions
Shares latest technology industry trends and deep tech investment perspectives

Mashup Ventures, an investment firm specializing in early-stage startups, invited representatives from major domestic investment institutions to share the latest trends in the technology industry and perspectives on deep tech investment.

On October 19, a Mashup Ventures representative said, "This year's 'Mashup Atoms Day' was organized around the theme 'From Bits to Atoms.' It examined how technology entrepreneurship is expanding into the physical world and provided a forum for founders tackling bottlenecks across industries to share insights from the field."

The event was held with venue support from D.Camp, operated by the Banks Foundation for Young Entrepreneurs. Five startups backed by Mashup Ventures took part: ▲Tynapse (CEO Minseung Kang) ▲NanoForge AI (CEO Donghyeon Kim) ▲Viologen (CEO Jungwon Park) ▲Airbility (CEO Jinmo Lee, Taekyu Reu) ▲OnB Space (CEO Hyosang Yoon).

In his keynote address, Park Eunwoo, vice president of Mashup Ventures, shared the industry-specific bottlenecks and opportunities emerging as AI accelerates content generation. "Even in the AI era, the expertise founders build up cannot easily be replicated," he said, emphasizing that "in deep tech startups in particular, the depth of that expertise makes the difference in overcoming bottlenecks."

Tynapse, a developer of AI trust infrastructure, discussed how bottlenecks in AI adoption are shifting toward reliability and security, and the resulting changes in the market. The company assesses in real time whether AI adopted by businesses is acting in accordance with their policies and blocks risks. It is currently attracting attention in industries including finance, manufacturing, and telecommunications.

NanoForge AI outlined recent trends in AI-based materials development and explained South Korea's strengths in the field, given its strong materials industry base. The startup automates the entire materials research and development (R&D) process using AI property prediction and robotic automation, shortening the development time for industrial materials that previously took years.

Lee Taekyung, CEO of Mashup Ventures. Mashup Ventures

Viologen, a startup founded by Seoul National University professors, uses natural gas infrastructure to produce hydrogen without carbon emissions. In its presentation, the company said existing clean energy production methods would struggle to meet rising energy demand. It proposed capturing the carbon generated during hydrogen extraction and recovering it as an industrial material, rather than releasing it into the atmosphere.

Airbility, an anti-drone (C-UAS) company, stressed the reality that attack drones are proliferating rapidly and at low cost, and the need for fast, affordable interception methods. Airbility manufactures its own unmanned aircraft to detect and capture illegal and threatening drones. It is expanding from defense into security for civilian infrastructure, including nuclear power plants and airports.

OnB Space is a NewSpace startup that put its first satellite into orbit with the fifth launch of Nuri. By developing key satellite components in-house, it has lowered costs and shortened development time, completing its first satellite launch in just a year and a half. CEO Yoon Hyosang, a professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at KAIST, discussed the NewSpace approach of rapidly building satellites and validating them in orbit, as well as the space industry's shift from satellite manufacturing to data services.

Lee Taekyung, CEO of Mashup Ventures, said, "Since early-stage investments are made before results can be proven with numbers, it is important to quickly spot market changes and believe in founders' potential. We will continue to serve as founders' first investors by expanding early-stage investment into deep tech fields such as Physical AI, energy, and aerospace."

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