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Photo courtesy of Yonhap News |
[Alpha Biz= Paul Lee] Naver D2SF has made a new investment in Podonos, a startup developing evaluation solutions for voice artificial intelligence (AI) models.
According to industry sources on the 10th, this marks Podonos’s first institutional fundraising, joined by U.S.-based Serac Ventures as well as domestic investors Naver D2SF and KAIST Youth Startup Investment Holdings.
With the rapid proliferation of AI models, the need for reliable performance evaluation and validation is growing. Podonos focuses on the voice AI sector, which is expanding quickly across industries such as speech recognition and synthesis, customer service, and content creation. Voice AI is also gaining recognition for its potential as a key interface for AI agents.
As evaluation factors diversify—ranging from pronunciation accuracy to intonation, emotional expression, persona, user preference, and noise handling—demand is rising for tailored assessments that identify the most suitable AI models for specific use cases.
Podonos combines a global pool of 150,000 evaluators with its proprietary AI automation solution to deliver customized voice AI model evaluations within an average of 12 hours. Its solution serves both AI model developers and companies adopting AI services: developers use it as a tool for validation and improvement, while adopters leverage it to discover and monitor models optimized for their goals and audiences.
“We will use this funding to expand our development team and strengthen our automated AI model analysis capabilities,” said Suhyun Bae, CEO of Podonos. “With Naver D2SF’s backing, we look forward to deepening collaboration and accelerating the creation of high-quality voice AI services.”
Alphabiz Reporter Paul Lee(hoondork1977@alphabiz.co.kr)
