Startup develops AI-powered platform to automate alert analysis, incident response
JB Financial Group has established an AI strategic investment fund worth about 30 billion won ($22.6 million) and selected an AI cybersecurity company as its first portfolio investment, the group announced Monday. The plan is to link equity stakes in promising firms to technology partnerships with its subsidiaries, driving a group-wide AI transformation.
JB Financial said it has formed the JB New Growth Investment Partnership No. 1, with Jeonbuk Bank, Gwangju Bank and JB Woori Capital participating as limited partners, and completed its first investment in Cipherdata. JB Investment, a group affiliate, will manage the fund.
The fund is part of the group's AI transformation strategy, which it began pursuing in earnest this year. It was established to build a foundation for linking technology acquisition with business cooperation through investments in AI companies.
JB Financial chose a cybersecurity firm as its first investment to get ahead of cyberattacks that exploit AI. The group said building security capabilities alongside broader AI adoption is an essential prerequisite for its transformation drive, and that it intends to strengthen its defenses against AI-enabled attacks even as it uses the technology to improve operational efficiency.
Cipherdata develops an AIDR (AI-based detection and response) platform that uses generative AI to automate alert analysis and incident response at security operations centers. The company is led by Kevin Ha, who previously oversaw AI security engineering and privacy incident response at Amazon and Meta. Cipherdata is also a member of CoSAI, an AI security consortium that counts Google, Microsoft and Amazon among its participants.
JB Financial plans to explore how Cipherdata's AI-based security operations technology could be applied in the financial sector. Going forward, the fund will invest in promising companies in areas such as AI models, application services and data analytics, while also pursuing business cooperation between portfolio companies and group affiliates.
"Through this AI fund, we will work with high-potential AI companies to accelerate the group's AI transformation and build an ecosystem where technology firms and financial groups grow together," JB Financial Group Chairman Kim Ki-hong said.
forest@heraldcorp.com
