"What's a Four-Legged Robot Doing in the Hallway?"... The 'Thing' That Shook Yeouido

"KDB NextRound FuturePlay Day" Investor Relations Event
Robot Demonstrations by Lion Robotics and Index Robotics

On the afternoon of November 6, in a hallway at the Korea Development Bank headquarters in Yeouido, Seoul, people began taking photos with their phones as a quadruped robot walked by. Ignoring the gasps of onlookers, the robot entered the startup investor relations center inside the building.

RAIBO, a quadruped robot developed by Lion Robotics, walks along a corridor at the Korea Development Bank headquarters in Yeouido, Seoul, on the afternoon of the 6th. Photo by Park Seunguk

At the "KDB NextRound FuturePlay Day," Lion Robotics demonstrated its quadruped robot, RAIBO. At the investor relations center, RAIBO showed investors various movements, including walking up a hill and flipping over.

Quadruped robots are in demand in the military because they can move steadily across a variety of terrain that is difficult for people to navigate, including stairs, uneven fields, and rugged ground. After securing seed funding in March 2024 and Series A funding in September 2025, Lion Robotics began conducting proof-of-concept (POC) tests with the military this year. Ten robots are currently being used in training exercises.

"We conduct reinforcement learning using our own simulation platform and use it to develop robot control technology," said Hwangbo Jemin, CEO of Lion Robotics. "No robot anywhere in the world has yet completed a half-marathon course, but Lion Robotics' robot is ahead of the pack: it completed the Sangju Marathon in November 2024 without recharging."

RAIBO, a quadruped robot developed by Lion Robotics, is seen climbing up and down a hill at KDB NextRound FuturePlay Day, held at the Korea Development Bank in Yeouido, Seoul, on the afternoon of the 6th. Photo by Park Seunguk

When an investor asked about its sales plans, Hwangbo expressed confidence, saying, "Customers are coming to us, so we don't have to rush to pursue sales." He added, "Only China and South Korea make robots like these, and there is just one competitor. We are currently meeting with foreign militaries as well, and next year we plan to demonstrate the robot to the military at an exhibition."

Index Robotics also demonstrated its robots that day. In the hallway outside the investor relations center, its two-armed robot, IDX-Handy, was flipping objects on a conveyor belt. Index Robotics is a startup developing a precision humanoid upper-body platform for physical artificial intelligence (AI). After receiving seed funding in February, it is now raising a pre-Series A round.

Index Robotics makes a high-degree-of-freedom, four-finger hand robot and a three-finger gripper. Initially, the company made only four-finger hand robots, but developed a three-finger gripper to lift heavier objects. The three-finger gripper can lift objects weighing up to 36 kg.

"By 2030, we plan to provide on-site robots as a service (RaaS) at an annual cost of around KRW 25 million," said Shin Seunghoon, CEO of Index Robotics. "We will expand our POCs through a current fundraising round of KRW 20 billion."

Realworld also held an investor relations session. Realworld is a startup developing a robotics foundation model specializing in dexterous manipulation. "We have secured a range of customers to prepare for a full-scale business launch in 2028," said Ryu Junghui, CEO of Realworld. "For a robotics foundation model to succeed, data, deployment, and the model must form a virtuous cycle. We are the only company in South Korea and Japan to have built these three pillars, and we are starting with deployment to compete with the United States and China."

The IDX-Handy (HANDY) robot from Index Robotics flips an object at KDB NextRound FuturePlay Day, held on the 6th at the Korea Development Bank's headquarters in Yeouido, Seoul. Photo by Park Seunguk.

Park Jeonghyeok, CEO of Tefa Robotics, also said at the investor relations session, "We are addressing the problem that the cost of customizing AI for each customer makes it difficult to scale up. We are using general-purpose AI to eliminate customization and lower robot prices. This has enabled our robots to be deployed in mass production by a U.S. automaker, demonstrating their competitiveness."

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