Kakao Corp. is expanding its investment focus to the United States with seed funding in two deep tech startups, signaling a shift toward securing new growth engines overseas as the domestic startup ecosystem faces stagnation.

Kakao Ventures, the venture capital arm of the South Korean tech firm, announced Thursday it had made undisclosed seed investments in U.S.-based startups Oligo Space and Tzafon.

Oligo Space specializes in AI-driven automation for satellite and spacecraft design, while Tzafon is developing infrastructure for multi-agent AI systems.

Oligo Space focuses on design automation and two-dimensional sheet metal manufacturing for space launch vehicles.

The company claims to significantly reduce production time by generating foldable design blueprints—akin to origami—after designing the mission-critical components first and optimizing the rest of the system accordingly.

Oligo is led by CEO Jacob Rodriguez, a former researcher at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and MIT, and includes engineers with backgrounds at SpaceX and Google.

Tzafon, on the other hand, provides core systems that ensure stability and performance when multiple AI agents collaborate on complex tasks, addressing a growing need for computing efficiency in increasingly intricate AI environments.

Kakao Ventures has been ramping up its global investment strategy since the appointment of CEO Kim Ki-jun last year.

In 2024, it made new investments in 16 startups, including U.S.-based firms FS2 (semiconductor technology), Compass (medtech), and Magnendo (robotic surgery).

Although the number of new investments is on a gradual decline every year, the share of overseas investments is on the rise.

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