Partnership upgraded from MOU to equity stake

JB Financial Group Chairman Kim Ki-hong (left) and Upstage CEO Kim Sung-hoon pose for a photo. [JB Financial Group]
JB Financial Group Chairman Kim Ki-hong (left) and Upstage CEO Kim Sung-hoon pose for a photo. [JB Financial Group]

JB Financial Group has invested 40 billion won ($29.8 million) in domestic AI company Upstage, acquiring roughly a 2 percent stake. The group plans to co-develop AI agents tailored to financial operations and integrate AI into document processing and credit assessment to boost workplace productivity.

JB Financial Group announced Tuesday that three of its affiliates — Jeonbuk Bank, Gwangju Bank and JB Woori Capital — signed a combined 40 billion won investment agreement with Upstage as part of the company's Series C-2 funding round.

The three affiliates led the first tranche of the round. Upstage plans to continue raising additional investment under the same round. The strategy combines hands-on financial experience with AI technology from the development stage to improve real-world applicability.

The investment follows a strategic partnership on AI technology and business cooperation that the two sides signed Sept. 14. After discussing joint development of AI agents for core financial operations and other areas of collaboration, they expanded the scope of the partnership to include an equity stake.

JB Financial has been pursuing a group-wide AI transformation, or AX, initiative this year, working to improve IT development, compliance monitoring and corporate lending operations. The group intends to use this investment as a foundation for building a long-term technology cooperation framework with Upstage.

Alongside this, the two companies plan to jointly develop finance-specific AI agents, conduct employee training and personnel exchanges, and pursue regional AI cooperation projects in partnership with local governments and universities. The immediate priority will be applying AI to time-consuming, repetitive tasks such as document processing and credit review.

"This investment reflects our determination to ensure that AI cooperation does not stop at declarations but leads to real change on the ground at our affiliates," JB Financial Group Chairman Kim Ki-hong said. "We will treat AI not merely as a supplementary work tool, but as a means to structurally transform the way we work and improve productivity — and we will make JB Financial Group a genuine success story of AX."


forest@heraldcorp.com