South Korean AI startups Phoenix Lab and TechTacar raise multi‑million investments

SK Networks’ in‑house AI venture Phoenix Lab secured an $8 million seed round from US venture‑capital firm Menlo Ventures, with participation from Menlo‑backed investors. The Korean biotech‑AI company, founded by Stanford‑trained researchers, offers the Cheiron AI operating system that links biomedical data to aid drug‑development decisions and is already used by major domestic pharma groups.

Separately, logistics platform provider TechTacar completed a 180 billion‑won follow‑on round led by Altos Ventures and Naver D2SF, with Japan’s ZVC joining as a new investor. The funding will be used to enhance the AI‑driven Argo platform, expand smart inspection tools, and broaden its global fulfil‑ment network across the United States, Japan, Southeast Asia and Europe. TechTacar CEO Song Kyung‑chan said the investment is “to proactively secure AI technology and global logistics infrastructure,” while Altos Ventures partner Lee Sang‑soo noted that “Argo’s AI‑based logistics capabilities have proven competitive in domestic and overseas fulfil‑ment markets.”