Seoul’s AI Game-Changer Just Raised $15.5M to Disrupt the AI Safety Scene Seoul-based AI startup Datumo has raised $15.5 million in funding led by Salesforce Ventures to challenge Scale AI's dominance in the rapidly growing AI evaluation market, capitalizing on industry upheaval following Meta's controversial $14.3 billion investment in Scale AI. The funding brings Datumo's total capital raised to approximately $28 million as the company positions itself to compete with established players through specialized tools for non-technical users. From Data Labeling to AI Safety Pioneer Founded in 2018 by CEO David Kim and five alumni from Korea's prestigious KAIST university as SelectStar, Datumo initially operated as a reward-based data labeling platform. The company pivoted when enterprise clients including Samsung, LG Electronics, Hyundai, Naver, and SK Telecom began requesting model evaluation services beyond simple data annotation. "That's when we realized: we were already doing AI model evaluation, without even knowing it," co-founder Michael Hwang told TechCrunch. This evolution led Datumo to launch Korea's first benchmark dataset focused on AI trust and safety, positioning the startup at the intersection of data preprocessing and model evaluation. The company now serves over 300 clients and generated approximately $6 million in revenue in 2024. Market Opportunity Emerges from Scale AI Disruption Datumo's funding comes amid significant turbulence in the AI data industry triggered by Meta's June 2025 acquisition of a 49% stake in Scale AI. The deal, which valued Scale at $29 billion, prompted major customers including OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft to reduce or eliminate their relationships with Scale over concerns about data neutrality. Scale subsequently laid off 200 employees, representing 14% of its workforce, as business contracted. According to a recent McKinsey report, while 40% of organizations view AI explainability as a significant risk, only 17% are actively addressing it, creating a substantial market gap. The global AI platform market is projected to reach $366.93 billion by 2031, growing at a 31.41% compound annual growth rate. Differentiated Approach Through No-Code Tools Datumo distinguishes itself through its flagship product Datumo Eval, a no-code evaluation platform designed for non-developers in policy, compliance, and trust and safety teams. The platform automatically generates test data and evaluates AI model responses for bias, safety, and correctness without requiring manual scripting. Unlike competitors Galileo and Arize AI that focus primarily on technical users, Datumo's licensed datasets from published books offer what the company describes as "rich structured human reasoning" data that requires significant cleaning expertise. The platform provides automated red teaming capabilities and dashboard-driven insights for enterprise users seeking AI safety validation. The new funding will support research and development efforts and global expansion into Japan and the United States, where Datumo established a Silicon Valley presence in March 2025. With the AI evaluation market experiencing rapid growth alongside increasing regulatory scrutiny, Datumo's timing and specialized focus position it to capture market share from incumbent providers facing trust challenges.
