Salesforce Ventures announced on Aug. 11 that it has made its first investment in a South Korean AI startup, leading a $15.5 million Series B funding round for Seoul-based Datumo, a company focused on trust and safety evaluation for generative AI systems.
Other participants in the round include KB Investment, Shinhan Venture Investment, Kiwoom Investment, SBI Investment, Samsung Securities, Moorim Capital, Infobank Partners and ACVC Partners. According to Datumo, some of its customers in South Korea include Samsung, SK Group, Shinhan Bank, and Hana Group.
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Inside Datumo's Eval Platform and AI Safety Approach
Founded in 2018 by David Kim, Michael Hwang, Hawk Shin, Yuntaek Lee, Haseung Jeon, and Muni Jeon, Datumo has developed the Eval platform, which delivers automated, end-to-end evaluation for AI model trustworthiness before deployment, Salesforce Ventures says.
The platform addresses risks such as hallucinations, biased responses, and unintended legal or reputational consequences through customizable evaluation criteria, large-scale question generation, automated AI response analysis, and red teaming capabilities.
Datumo Eval can generate more than 1 million test questions to cover diverse user input patterns, ensuring comprehensive performance checks for large language models. The system blends quantitative scoring on benchmark datasets, qualitative assessments of fluency and coherence, and "LLM-as-a-judge" methods to compare model outputs.
The platform includes red teaming tools that actively probe for unsafe or harmful outputs before deployment. Datumo has leveraged this technology in regulated sectors such as finance, where accuracy, compliance, and ethical alignment are critical. Datumo says it has filed 47 patent applications and registered 16 patents.
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How Datumo Builds High-Quality AI Datasets at Massive Scale
Datumo has created a large AI data labeling network in Asia, with 245,000 people registered on its crowd-sourcing platform, Cash Mission. These contributors can work from anywhere through a web or mobile app, helping Datumo quickly build large, high-quality datasets for many industries.
For projects that need extra security or expert skills, Datumo says it uses in-house teams who work in dedicated offices with professional tools, such as voice recording booths.
The company also developed a patented labeling system that keeps every annotation consistent and accurate. Its semi-automated technology can cut labeling time in half, even with a small starting dataset, making it faster and more cost-effective for clients.
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Expansion Plans Across South Korea, Japan and The U.S. as Demand for AI Trust and Safety Grows
Datumo's history in data-centric AI dates back to its founding, long before generative AI gained mainstream traction. According to Salesforce Ventures, the startup has built a reputation as a mission-critical partner for corporations navigating the complexities of AI deployment.
Salesforce Ventures says it sees "strong potential for Eval's international expansion" with a focus on South Korea, Japan and the U.S. as demand for trusted AI grows. Datumo also works in partnership with the South Korean government, hosting Asia's first Red Team Challenge during the 2024 AI Safety Conference, which featured speakers from Cohere and Stability AI.
By combining large-scale evaluation capabilities with a growing international presence, Salesforce Ventures says Datumo aims to become a leader in AI trust and safety infrastructure worldwide.
With major South Korean corporations such as Samsung already among its customers, Datumo's expanding AI safety capabilities could attract interest from other industry leaders, including LG.
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