Realworld Aims to Lead Physical AI Market with ₩21B Investment

Realworld, a startup founded by CEO Ryu Jung-hee after his departure from accelerator FuturePlay, has officially announced its entry into the robot AI market, having secured 21 billion won in seed investment. Realworld has presented the development of a 'Robot Foundation Model (RFM)', which enables autonomous judgment and movement for robots, as its core business objective. This is a physical AI model installed in the 'body' of robots, going beyond text or images. Unlike the Large Language Model (LLM) market, which is dominated by US big tech companies, this field is just beginning to emerge. CEO Ryu announced plans to unveil an RFM-based humanoid in the second half of this year and commence industrial site Proofs of Concept (PoC) in major markets including Korea, Japan, and the United States starting in late 2025. In this domain, currently challenged by only a few companies such as Tesla and Figure AI, Realworld has expressed its ambition that Korea, despite its strengths in robot hardware, will not miss out on supremacy in the relatively underdeveloped physical AI sector. Realworld's competitiveness stems from its unique cooperative network. Its 'Physical AI Avengers Network,' which includes top domestic university research teams like KAIST and Seoul National University, as well as robot manufacturers such as Robotis and Rainbow Robotics, has been established, reducing data collection speed by 10 times. Furthermore, industry veterans such as Ryu Hyung-kyu, former Kurly CTO and now CPO, and Bae Jae-kyung, former Upstage AI Product Lead and now CTO, have joined as key personnel, accelerating technological development. CEO Ryu Jung-hee himself has also demonstrated his firm commitment by leaving FuturePlay, which he led for 13 years, to dedicate himself entirely to Realworld. The 21 billion KRW seed investment saw participation from not only domestic and international venture capitalists like Hashed and Mirae Asset Venture Investment, but also major Korean corporations such as LG Electronics and SK Telecom, and major Japanese corporations including ANA Holdings and Mitsui Chemicals, as strategic investors. This signifies more than just fundraising; it explores the potential for RFM utilization in real industrial settings, such as aircraft maintenance and flexible material processing. CEO Ryu emphasized that, unlike internet data-based LLMs, manufacturing powerhouses Korea and Japan, which are rich in real-world data and on-site experience, can seize new opportunities in the RFM market. In fact, Korea possesses world-class research capabilities, ranking among the top 3 globally in terms of the number of papers presented at global academic conferences related to RFM. Realworld is jointly developing next-generation reference humanoids with Wirobotics and expanding its RFM ecosystem through collaborations with sensor and AI companies like SOS LAB and Deeping Source. Realworld has laid out a vision to develop the fastest and most practical RFM, leveraging the extensive experience and data from Korean and Japanese manufacturing, and to grow into a company leading global physical AI innovation.