Naver establishes venture capital firm in the U.S. to secure competitiveness in AI and data fields - South Korean media

IT giant Naver has established a new company, Naver Ventures, in Silicon Valley, USA, to fully embark on investing in promising startups around the world.
Led by Kim Nam-seong, CEO of Naver's strategic investment division, the group plans to lead various investment and collaboration activities in the U.S. The first investment is in Minnesota.
Based in the state of California, Twelve Labs is a Korean company that is attracting attention in the field of video AI. Through Naver Ventures, the company strives to grasp global technology trends and has a diverse team of employees from various nationalities.
The company plans to expand cooperation with startups in these fields, aiming to grow Naver itself through new technologies, human resources, and partnerships.
"The reason we were able to build a unique search engine in the world is because of data," said Naver Chairman Lee Hae-jin.
When Google started to support languages around the world, they felt a sense of crisis and responded by building communities such as blogs and cafes based on Korean user-generated content (UGC).
A similar strategy is necessary in the AI market," said a Naver official. "We will strengthen investments through Naver Ventures to become more competitive in the global AI market.
We will also work to secure human resources by strengthening our data-driven business domain."