South Korea-based artificial intelligence (AI) software developer VoyagerX has attracted US$27 million from SoftBank Ventures Asia, Altos Ventures and Yellowdog in its Series A funding round, with each investing US$9 million.

The funds will be used to develop more user-centric AI services and increase the depth of its talent pool, with the aim of hiring 100 people by 2022.

VoyagerX, founded in 2017 by its CEO Sedong Nam, builds AI solutions and tools that leverage deep-learning capabilities – an offshoot of machine learning that imitates the human brain when creating patterns and processing data for decision-making.

“We strongly believe in the transformative potential of AI and deep learning,” Nam says. “Our mission is to cultivate the best AI talents and create innovative AI solutions to improve the lives of those around us.”

The rise of the digital economy has accelerated the global adoption and development of AI on a massive scale. Worldwide spending on AI is expected to double from US$50.1 billion in 2020 to over US$110 billion in 2024.

In the Asia-Pacific region, the technology is increasingly being incorporated across major sectors, such as finance, healthcare and retail, to increase operational efficiency and productivity. As a result, governments in the region are investing heavily in building supportive AI ecosystems and encouraging the development of experimental AI projects.

SoftBank Ventures Asia’s funding participation is its latest in a series of investments made in 2021 into technology companies within the region. Recently, the firm announced investments into Youibot, a mobile robot and solution provider in China; Super, an Indonesia-based social commerce platform, and Standard Energy, a South Korean vanadium ion battery developer.