00:02You're listening to AI Prism from Seoul Economic Daily.
00:30Word of mouth with no sales agents at all.
00:33Four major Korean corporations and public-sector agencies are now negotiating with AI video
00:39startup 12 Labs to run its models on-premise instead of through the cloud.
00:44And Toss Securities just told us it measures success by how often investors open the app,
00:50not by how much they trade.
00:52It's Thursday, October 22.
00:54Let's look at what this means for startups and entrepreneurs in Korea.
00:57Korea's AI and fintech sectors are racing through consolidation and infrastructure shifts
01:03at the same time.
01:05Corporate and public-sector clients worried about data leaks are pushing AI vendors to
01:10deploy models inside their own firewalls, rather than through shared cloud platforms.
01:15At the same time, financial regulators are opening the door for fintech firms to take on traditional
01:21banking functions directly, instead of just brokering other companies' products.
01:26Here's what the numbers show.
01:28Finda paid 12 billion won, about $9 million, for 60% of Daiwan Savings Bank, while JB Financial
01:36Group's Junbook Bank took the remaining 40%.
01:39The approval lets Finda issue deposit and lending products directly, instead of only brokering
01:45them, effective immediately after this week's sign-off.
01:48Finda has brokered over 15 trillion won, about $11.3 billion, in loans since 2015, building
01:56the data and customer base it now plans to use for direct lending.
02:00CacaoPay General Insurance has grown its insurance revenue more than 200-fold since its CEO joined
02:08in July 2023.
02:09A $2.9 million on-premise AI contract just landed at translation firm Flitto, and the
02:16company says additional client inquiries are already pushing it to expand on-premise offerings.
02:2270%.
02:23That's the repeat enrollment rate on CacaoPay General Insurance's flagship travel policy,
02:29grown almost entirely through word of mouth rather than paid marketing.
02:33So what does this mean for founders building in Korea?
02:36Earlier, we said Finda just became the first Korean fintech allowed to own a bank.
02:42Here's what that actually means for you.
02:44Korea's regulators are now willing to let non-bank, tech-first companies hold banking
02:49licenses, a path that could open for other fintechs with the data and track record to back
02:54it up.
02:55For founders IonKorea, the opportunity is shifting toward enterprise and on-premise AI deployment,
03:01where corporate and public sector clients are actively asking vendors to build for their
03:06infrastructure instead of the other way around.
03:09Watch whether Finda actually launches its promised deposit and mid-rate lending products
03:14in the months ahead, now that the banking approval is in hand.
03:17Watch whether 12 Labs converts its talks with those four Korean corporations and public agencies
03:23into signed on-premise contracts.
03:26And watch whether other licensed fintechs follow Finda into direct bank ownership, now that
03:31regulators have shown they'll approve it.
03:33That's today's AI Prism, founders.
03:36This episode was produced with AI assistance based on Seoul Economic Daily reporting and
03:41reviewed by a human editor.
03:43AI Prism is a WAN-IFRA award-winning series.
03:46We'll be back tomorrow.
03:47You've been listening to AI Prism from Seoul Economic Daily.
03:51AI Prism from Seoul Economic Daily.
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