AI Startup Locon Selected for IBK Changgong UNIST Camp

Locon (로콘), a startup that develops AI software and is led by chief executive Hong Kyung-won, said on July 13 that it had been selected for the IBK Changgong UNIST Camp, a startup accelerator programme sponsored by the Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK) and operated by Series Ventures.

IBK Changgong is the bank's nationwide startup development platform. Through its permanent centres and two university-based camps, at Seoul National University and UNIST, it selects and supports about 200 innovative startups a year.

Selected companies receive free shared office space, one-to-one mentoring in areas including tax, law, labour affairs and technology certification, introductions to investors and regular investor presentation sessions.

Locon had earlier been selected for the Korea Press Foundation's media startup support programme, making this the second time in the two months since the company was founded that its growth potential has been recognised.

Locon's main service is neta (네타), an AI-based platform that generates press releases and matches them with reporters.

Neta automatically matches press releases written by companies with the reporters most likely to cover them.

Its core engine is a "content profile" technology that accumulates and structures material about companies and individuals, which the company says allows press releases and reporters to be paired precisely.

Locon signed up business customers immediately after it was founded. At the end of this month it will formally launch the neta platform, lowering the barrier for companies to distribute press releases without hiring a public relations agency.

Using the office space, mentoring and investment introductions that come with the selection, Locon plans to extend its content profile technology beyond media matching into marketing.

The company intends to use the content data it accumulates on individual companies and people to offer new marketing services suited to the era of generative AI, such as answer engine optimisation (AEO) and generative engine optimisation (GEO).

"I am grateful to IBK Changgong Busan for placing its trust in Locon," Hong said. "On the basis of the mentoring and network from this camp we will improve neta, and with the formal launch at the end of this month we want to make it easier for more companies to do their own media relations."