Daedong Robotics, the artificial intelligence (AI) robot specialist subsidiary of Daedong Group, announced on the 6th that it has secured a Series A investment totaling 5 billion won (approximately $3.3 million) from GS Engineering & Construction (GS E&C) and corporate venture capital (CVC) firms affiliated with Posco Holdings. Three firms participated in this round: Xplo Investment, GS E&C’s corporate-led venture capital arm; Posco Technology Investment, a Posco Holdings affiliate; and Now IB Capital.
The investment is widely viewed as extending beyond a purely financial commitment, carrying strong strategic partnership implications aimed at expanding Daedong Robotics’ AI field robot technology from agriculture into real-world industrial sites such as construction, manufacturing, and logistics. Notably, the participation of GS E&C and Posco-affiliated CVCs is directly tied to concrete collaboration objectives: construction site automation and manufacturing site logistics automation, respectively.
Daedong Robotics previously signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with GS E&C in June for “construction site automation and smart construction technology cooperation.” With Xplo Investment’s participation in this round, the company plans to accelerate the development and commercialization of automation robots for construction sites. Posco Technology Investment focused on the potential application of Daedong Robotics’ advanced “combined indoor-outdoor autonomous driving” technology at manufacturing sites. The core of this technology lies in enabling robots to autonomously navigate and perform tasks across both indoor factory floors and outdoor work areas. Daedong Robotics intends to continuously explore linkage models with large-scale manufacturing sites, including those of Posco Group.
Daedong Robotics will concentrate the 5 billion won investment on advancing AI field robot technology, mass-producing new robots, and expanding real-world industrial site validation. Building on autonomous driving, spatial perception, and control technologies already proven in agricultural settings, the company plans to expand its lineup of agricultural robots for mowing, pest control, and other tasks, while simultaneously broadening the scope of application to unstructured industrial environments such as construction, manufacturing, and logistics.
Construction and manufacturing sites are considered prime examples of unstructured industrial environments where robotics companies are attempting commercialization. Unlike logistics warehouses, where movement paths and working conditions are relatively standardized, construction and agricultural sites feature terrain, obstacles, and working conditions that change frequently. This means that autonomous driving, obstacle recognition, remote control, and off-road driving performance must all be secured simultaneously for practical field deployment. Daedong Robotics possesses technologies specialized for unstructured work environments, including combined indoor-outdoor autonomous driving, vision AI-based unstructured environment perception, and an off-road driving platform. The company has also laid the groundwork for commercialization by becoming the first in South Korea to obtain certification for an autonomous agricultural transport robot.
In the mid-to-long term, the company is pursuing a transition beyond robot sales toward a Robot-as-a-Service (RaaS) platform business. The vision is to grow into an AI field robot platform company that generates recurring service revenue based on autonomous driving, control, and operational data accumulated in the field, while enhancing customer work efficiency and productivity.
“With AI field robots built on an off-road autonomous driving platform proven in real-world environments, we will contribute to creating safer work conditions by replacing dangerous and repetitive tasks in agriculture, construction, and manufacturing,” said Kang Sung-chul, CEO of Daedong Robotics. “Leveraging Daedong Group’s full-stack capabilities spanning physical AI, robot hardware design, development, validation, and manufacturing to mass production, we will further accelerate robot commercialization.”
Daedong Robotics, established in October 2024, is Daedong Group’s AI field robot specialist. Starting with autonomous agricultural transport robots, the company is expanding its product portfolio to include multi-purpose agricultural robots for mowing and pest control, with plans to extend its business into the industrial robot market for manufacturing and construction applications.