South Korea AI startup Wrtn aims to enter US market, targets IPO as early as 2028

SEOUL, Feb 11 (Reuters) – South Korean startup Wrtn expects to generate more than $100 million of annualised revenue this year after launching its AI entertainment service in South Korea and Japan, with plans to expand to the U.S. by June and eyeing an IPO as early as 2028, its founder said. Wrtn's story-driven artificial intelligence service, called "Crack" in South Korea and "Kyarapu" in Japan, differentiates itself from character chatbot competitors like Character.AI by focusing on interactive storytelling rather than companion-style chatbots, founder Lee Seyoung told Reuters. "Users aren't just chatting with a character; they are entering a narrative world where they are the protagonist," Lee said, adding that its AI service generates novels, images and audio in real-time based on users' choices. Wrtn and other AI companies are facing stepped-up regulation in many countries, while character AI products have been plagued by concerns about unhealthy user dependency or that users will confuse what is generated as real relationships. Lee said Wrtn's narrative-centric model, in which characters can disappear or be replaced as the AI generates a novel based on user interactions, mitigates concerns compared with companionship-driven services. Wrtn recorded $70 million of annualised revenue at the end of 2025, surpassing some of its competitors despite only launching in South Korea in late 2024 and in Japan in mid-2025, Lee said. Average users spend about two hours daily on the platform, comparable to the time spent on Netflix or YouTube, with paying users showing retention rates above 70%, he said. The startup has secured cumulative investment of about 130 billion won, with the last Series B funding round securing 108 billion won in March 2025. It plans another round this year, Lee said. The company is targeting $700 million annualised revenue by the end of 2027 – a tenfold increase – with initial public offering plans tentatively set for 2028 or later in either South Korea or the United States, Lee said. ($1 = 1,466.5800 won) (Reporting by Joyce LeeEditing by Ed Davies)

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