addd (CEO Sang-hyun Ahn), a startup that is bringing new winds to the outdoor advertising ecosystem with its AI-based ad effectiveness measurement solution, announced on the 15th that it has successfully completed a Series A investment round totaling 5.7 billion won from DevSisters Ventures, Postech Holdings, Futureplay, Shinhan Tech Innovation, The Wells Investment, Credit Guarantee Fund, and Shinhan Asset Management. This is a remarkable achievement given the recent downturn in investment sentiment for startups.

Since its establishment in 2018, addd has been focusing on securing original technology. It has won awards in AI-related competitions, including runner-up in the AI Big-Star Championship and the Excellence Award in the Location Information Company Selection Competition, and received the Daejeon Metropolitan Mayor's Award for Outstanding Technology Innovation from the Daejeon Sejong Chungnam Branch of the InnoBiz Association. The company was also recognized for its innovative technology in the outdoor advertising market by exhibiting at CES 2022 (International Consumer Electronics Show) and Outdoor Advertising Industry Exhibition (2022).

Recently, in April, it was selected as Korea's first 'Data Value Evaluation Company' by the Credit Guarantee Fund, recognizing its credibility as a high-value data and innovative business. As a business that centers on securing data, it has faced difficulties due to various regulations, but it can be said that it has been positively accepted that it has been solving regulations one by one through regulatory sandbox approval and rapidly developing in-depth technology.

The core business model of addd is 'addd-i', a SaaS solution business that makes existing outdoor advertising media smarter based on artificial intelligence technology. Based on this, it is trying to expand into media businesses such as 'DALGO T' and 'DALGO D'.

'DALGO T', an AI-powered smart mobility (intelligent transportation) advertising medium launched this year, has attracted attention from many advertisers and advertisers as a differentiated model from existing mobility advertising vehicles. Recently, the company has focused its R&D efforts on 'DALGO D', a smart Conneted TV ad medium with built-in advertising effectiveness solutions, and has received positive responses from large shopping malls, hospitals, and beauty salons.

“As the outdoor advertising market, which has undergone a digital transformation during the pandemic, is recovering and growing rapidly around the world, we will continue to rapidly recruit manpower and upgrade technology with investment funds, and strive to become a game changer based on technologies such as AI and big data in the outdoor advertising market, which has remained a technology barren area until now,” said Ahn Sang-hyun, CEO of addd. ”In particular, the outdoor advertising infrastructure accumulated in the past will facilitate global expansion, so we are drawing a blueprint to rapidly expand our business, starting with Southeast Asia, which is rich in consumer and human infrastructure. As a start, we established a subsidiary in Vietnam in June of this year and are in talks with major local companies.”

Meanwhile, addd is the seventh incubated company under IBK's startup incubation platform, IBK Incubation Zone, and was co-founded by accelerator CNT Tech (CEO Phone Sung Choi).