DSC Investment and LB Investment co-lead round; all existing investors follow on

Company moves beyond research to deploy physical AI in manufacturing sites, validating business model through sales

Proceeds to go toward talent acquisition, customer deployment infrastructure and global expansion

Carbon Six executives (from left): Seo Hyeong-ju, chief technology officer; Kim Je-hyeok, chief hardware officer; Moon Tae-yeon, CEO; and Jo Hun-min, chief product officer. [Carbon Six]
Carbon Six executives (from left): Seo Hyeong-ju, chief technology officer; Kim Je-hyeok, chief hardware officer; Moon Tae-yeon, CEO; and Jo Hun-min, chief product officer. [Carbon Six]

Carbon Six announced Wednesday that it has secured $40 million (about 60 billion won) in Series A funding from major domestic and international venture capital firms.

DSC Investment and LB Investment co-led the round. They were joined by Xquared, IMM Investment, KDB Industrial Bank of Korea and SV Investment, while US-based Cortentia and A Squared came on board as new investors.

All existing investors from the seed round — Foothill Ventures, Storm Ventures, Zeitgeist Capital and CarbonBlack Fund — also participated in the follow-on investment.

Carbon Six focuses on moving robot AI technology out of the laboratory and into actual manufacturing sites, building a commercialization model for physical AI. The company offers an automation tool called SigmaKit, designed to help customers solve problems immediately. As the tool is deployed across more manufacturing sites, high-quality operational data accumulates; that data improves the robot AI model, which in turn feeds back into a better automation tool. The company's core strategy is to secure data with a clear purpose — solving real customer problems — and link that directly to sales growth.

The company is led by CEO Moon Tae-yeon, who co-founded Sualab and oversaw its sale to Cognex; CTO Seo Hyeong-ju, a robot AI specialist with a doctorate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and Chief Hardware Officer Kim Je-hyeok, a robot hardware expert who completed postdoctoral research at Yale University.

Carbon Six said it will direct the proceeds toward four priorities: securing key talent, expanding product and data infrastructure, strengthening customer deployment capabilities and pursuing global business expansion.

"The true measure of physical AI lies in how reliably it works on the customer's floor and what tangible results it delivers," Moon said. "Building on this investment, we will scale the virtuous cycle connecting product deployment, data and model improvement to manufacturing sites around the world."

Kang Seong-min, a director at DSC Investment, said Carbon Six "goes beyond describing physical AI as a future possibility — it demonstrates concrete results through products, field deployment and sales." He added that the company's approach of designing technology and products around customer return on investment "will make Carbon Six a market leader."

Jeong Seong-uk, a senior associate at LB Investment, said Carbon Six's model — in which data accumulates and products and models improve together as the automation tool is deployed across more sites — "can become a powerful barrier to entry." He added that he was pleased "to work with a team that understands both manufacturing and robotics in bringing physical AI to full-scale commercialization."


realbighead@heraldcorp.com