(Bloomberg) -- Artificial intelligence startup Upstage secured 100 billion won ($72 million) from investors including SK Networks Co. and KT Corp. to bankroll an expansion in the US, Japan and Southeast Asia.

The South Korean startup has closed a Series B financing, tripling the amount raised in a previous funding round in 2021, the company said on Tuesday. New backers including Korea Development Bank and Shinhan Venture Investment Co. as well as existing investors such as SBVA, formerly known as SoftBank Ventures Asia, took part in the latest financing.  

Upstage was co-founded in 2020 by Sung Kim, who previously led an AI development team at Naver Corp., South Korea’s largest internet company. Its enterprise customers  use its document processing engines and large-language model Solar to try and boost work efficiency. Upstage now plans to break into overseas markets starting with the US, according to the company.

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