Key Summary
- 8 of 122 teams won; grand prize went to Rocon
- Evaluation criteria: fast adoption and scalability
- Narrow the scope with a PoC before full rollout
- Define PoC success criteria first
Kakao Investment's startup support program 'Kakao AI Dot Voyage Season 2' saw 8 teams win out of 122 teams affiliated with or graduated from the four major science and technology institutes, with the grand prize going to UNIST's Rocon, which developed 'My Own Work Agent.'
The finals and awards ceremony were held on November 10, 2026, at the Kakao AI Campus in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, with Kakao Investment announcing the results on November 12. The four major science and technology institutes are KAIST, GIST, DGIST, and UNIST. Twelve teams selected through screening presented their AI technology and business models at the finals.
What were the selection criteria?
Participating teams chose either a business area proposed by a Kakao affiliate or a topic of their own choosing, and proposed technology and business ideas accordingly. At the finals, teams delivered investor relations (IR) presentations centered on technical competitiveness, business viability, and growth strategy, and their business feasibility was verified through Q&A sessions with a panel of actual investors.
Grand prize winner Rocon received high marks for enabling small and medium-sized enterprises to quickly adopt the solution for operational efficiency, and for its strong business scalability centered on B2B work support functions.
What do the winning teams receive?
- Grand Prize (30 million won): Rocon (UNIST)
- Excellence Award (10 million won each): MiliTrack (KAIST), Space AI (GIST)
- Encouragement Award (5 million won each): F22 (KAIST), GeoRobot (DGIST), Rocket Tools (GIST), TripBuilder (UNIST), Quester (DGIST)
- Total prize money: 75 million won combined across 8 teams
- Kakao Group: Provides winning teams with opportunities for technology proof-of-concept (PoC) with Kakao affiliates
- Kakao Investment: Plans to link investment review to examine follow-up commercialization potential
Investment and PoC proceed through separate review and consultation processes. In his welcoming remarks, Kakao Investment CEO Kim Do-young said, "Kakao and the four major science and technology institutes joined forces to narrow the gap between regional research capabilities and the market."
Implications for Korean Enterprise AX
In this competition, the grand prize team was evaluated on fast adoption by small and medium-sized enterprises and the scalability of B2B work support functions. Companies considering adopting a work agent should, before comparing feature lists, first evaluate how long implementation takes and whether it can be integrated into workflows involving business partners.
This program is structured to validate research-stage technology in the market through investment review and affiliate PoCs. Companies looking to bring in external AI technology can follow the same process: before full-scale adoption, run a PoC narrowed to a single department or task, and decide whether to proceed with a contract based on the results.
Identify the single task in your organization with the highest volume of repetitive processing, and determine in advance what will count as success criteria when running a PoC with an external work agent.