Elice Inc. (Elice), South Korea’s upcoming artificial intelligence (AI)-powered educational platform company, has raised a KRW 20 billion ($14.9 million) Series C round.

Elice said in a statement on Monday that the new funding is led by Vertex Growth, a growth-stage venture capital fund anchored by Vertex Holdings, a subsidiary of the global investment company Temasek.

Its participating investors include Altos Ventures.

According to the statement, the newly acquired funds will strengthen their organizational capabilities and fuel expansion into the Asia Pacific (APAC) region.

The company launched operations in Singapore last year, following the establishment of its United States office in 2022.

To enable a global service offering, enhancements on EliceLXP (learning experience platform) will be made to advance its AI capabilities and expand content libraries.

Besides accelerating expansion in APAC, the company plans to strengthen its AI research capabilities by building a large-scale AI Data center in Busan, leveraging its experience in building portable modular data center (PMDC).

The center aims to recruit technology talent with aspirations to hire a large-scale AI workforce in Busan.

“This funding round has cemented our ambitions to establish ourselves as the undisputed leader in B2B technology education platform in South Korea,” said Kim Jae Won, Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder of Elice Inc.

“Our AI-driven education platform has attracted positive responses at various global exhibitions paving the way for our global business expansion,

“With the fresh funding, we plan to focus on expanding into global markets such as Singapore, the United States, and Japan along with building a domestic AI infrastructure that can provide a stable AI-driven education environment,” he added.

Founded in 2015, Elice educational training platform provides a virtualized education training environment and customized training solutions with EliceLXP – the first education startup in South Korea that implemented AI technologies to education for its training programs and platform.

It provides customized digital transformation training to more than 1,800 institutional clients ranging from universities such as Seoul National University and KAIST, as well as government and public institutions, including major Korean companies such as SK, LG, and Hyundai.

With an established presence in South Korea, Elice focuses on delivering an integrated business to business (B2B) and business to government (B2G) educational platform and content for institutional clients, specializing in technical skills upgrades to enhance digital transformation within an organization.

Elice leverages AI to offer specialized tech skill development and a customized learning experience across coding environments via personalized tutoring, live classes, testing/assessment, learning management systems and customer management systems.

“With increasing sophistication in information technology (IT) workforce roles and the rapid evolution of IT technologies, there’s a growing underserved demand for more advanced, practical workforce education and preparing new graduates entering the workforce in the world of AI,” said Tam Hock Chuan, General Partner at Vertex Growth said

According to him, Elice’s platform, evidenced by its impressive growth and endorsements from prominent teaching institutions and corporate clients, stands out as the only market solution adequately addressing these market needs and is poised to appeal to the overseas workforce upskilling/reskilling market.

“Vertex Growth is committed to assisting Elice in establishing connections with universities and learning institutions in the region. Furthermore, the company’s ambitions extend to establishing an AI computing data center to complement its training offerings,

“With a highly talented management team, coupled with the support of trusted investors like Altos Ventures, who have a history of backing various market pioneers, Elice is well-positioned to spearhead innovation in the education market,” he added.

Moon Oh, Partner at Altos Ventures said Elice is changing the dynamics of digital education in South Korea and is now leading the way in transforming public education.

“Their solution is uniquely positioned to leverage AI to transform this industry with the vast library of content, service platform for institutional clients, and infrastructure the company has built,” he added.

According to the statement, Elice serves more than 1,800 globally and counts among its clients South Korea’s major conglomerates, top universities, and government ministries.

Its AI-based practice-oriented education platform, EliceLXP, has accumulated more than 1.3 million users, recording an average annual growth rate of more than 111 percent.

The company’s goal is to evolve into a full-scale AI education company, offering everything from computing infrastructure and software platforms to educational content, utilizing its extensive educational data and sophisticated AI capabilities.

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