SK Telecom Injects Millions to Collaborate with Allganize, Imprimed AI Startups

SK Telecom Co., Ltd., the leading telecommunications company in South Korea, is collaborating with two artificial intelligence (AI) startups - Allganize Inc. and Imprimed Inc. For the partnership, the mobile carrier reportedly invested huge sums and this was first revealed on Monday, Nov. 6.

According to The Korea Economic Daily, SK Telecom put in a total of KRW9.4 billion or $7.2 million for the startups. Allganize received KRW5.4 billion while Imprimed was allotted KRW4 billion. The company shared the amount of investments but did not disclose information on its holding rate in each AI firm.

Facts About Allganize and Imprimed

Allganize is based in Houston, Texas and it provides large language model services (LLM) via generative AI to more than 200 clients in the corporate scene. Some of its major partners are based in Japan and these are retail company Aeon Co.Aeon Co., Ltd., Sumitomo Mitsui Finance and Leasing Company Ltd., and Dai-ichi Life Insurance Co.

The apps that Allganize provides are powered by LLM and this can help companies with analyzing documents quickly. The documents are related to various business fields including human resources, law, and marketing.

The tool can also help with summarizing information. This app is available to clients of the company and can be bought from Allganize’s online marketplace.

On the other hand, Imprimed is a biotech firm based in California. It mainly offers individualized predictions on the success and response to specific treatments for cancer. It does the work by examining the traits of a patient’s cancer cells and medicines to help pin down the best treatment method.

SK Telecom’s Plan for the Alliance with the AI Firms

For what Allganize can do, SK Telecom is planning to integrate its own AI cloud computing technologies with the former’s apps to improve the LLM and broaden the app business in the process. As for Imprimed, the telecom firm will work with it to jointly develop an AI model that will allow the prediction of cancer patients’ responses by checking their clinical traits and available genetic information.

Finally, ISP Page reported that SK Telecom’s investments in both Allganize and Imprimed are part of the company’s comprehensive strategy to turn itself into an AI company. It is aiming for this transformation so it will not solely rely on its telecom services to keep the business going.

Photo by: SK Telecom Website