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- Upstage
Upstage Revenue, Valuation, Funding & Investors
Upstage is valued at $1.5B as of October 2026, a 78.5x revenue multiple. Upstage revenue was $19M, as disclosed with its latest round.
Last Upstage valuation
$1.5B
Series C · Oct 2026
Last Upstage funding round
$30M
Series C · Oct 2026
Upstage revenue
$19M
Series C · Oct 2026
Key investors in Upstage
Premier Partners
Primer Sazze Partners
Mirae Asset Venture Investment
Shinhan Venture Investment
SK Networks
Korea Development Bank
About Upstage
Upstage is a South Korean artificial intelligence company headquartered in Yongin, with a U.S. office in San Jose. Founded in 2020, it builds enterprise generative AI products including the Solar family of large language models and document processing technology such as document parsing, automated task execution, and a Universal Information Extractor. Its tools are used by large enterprises including Samsung, as well as Korean insurance firms and government institutions.
Founded
2020
HQ
Website
Status
Privately held
Customer focus
B2B
Revenue model
Subscription, Usage-based
Revenue
$19M (Oct 2026)
Valuation
$1.5B (Oct 2026)
Upstage Valuation
Upstage is currently valued at $1.5B, based on its Series C in October 2026. Read the announcement ↗
The $30M round included JB Woori Capital Company, Kwangju Bank, Jeonbuk Bank and JB Financial Group Co.
Upstage's valuation has grown 2.0x from $750M at its strategic investment round in February 2026 to $1.5B in October 2026, across 3 priced rounds.
Upstage valuation by funding round
Revenue multiple| Date | Stage | Valuation | Revenue Multiple |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 2026 | Series C | $1.5B | 78.5x |
| Apr 2026 | Series C | $661M | - |
| Feb 2026 | Strategic investment | $750M | 53.6x |
Upstage Revenue
Upstage's latest recorded revenue is $19M, as of its Series C in October 2026. At a $1.5B valuation, that implies a 78.5x revenue multiple.
Revenue grew from $14M in February 2026 to $19M in October 2026, while the revenue multiple moved from 53.6x to 78.5x.
Upstage revenue by funding round
| Date | Revenue * | Valuation | Revenue Multiple | Stage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 2026 | $19M | $1.5B | 78.5x | Series C |
| Feb 2026 | $14M | $750M | 53.6x | Strategic investment |
* Revenue (or ARR) figures are the values recorded alongside each funding round. Typically run-rate revenue at the time of the deal, or a reported LTM (last 12 months) revenue.
Upstage Funding History
Upstage has raised a total of $352M across 8 funding rounds.
Upstage's first fundraising round was a $27M Series A in September 2021. The most recent completed round was a $30M Series C in October 2026.
Upstage funding rounds
| Date | Stage | Investors | Raised | Valuation | Deal Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 2026 | Series C | JB Woori Capital Company; Kwangju Bank; Jeonbuk Bank; JB Financial Group Co | $30M | $1.5B | JB Financial Group announced on 20 October 2026 that three of its subsidiaries, Jeonbuk Bank, Kwangju Bank and JB Woori Capital, had signed an investment agreement to invest KRW 40 billion in the South Korean AI company Upstage. The investment forms the first tranche of Upstage's Series C-2 round, which the three affiliates led and which Upstage plans to keep raising funds in. Through it, JB Financial Group secured an approximately 2 percent stake in Upstage. Group chairman Kim Ki-hong said the investment reflects the group's determination to make AI collaboration go beyond declarations and lead to tangible changes at its subsidiaries. The two companies had signed a strategic memorandum in September 2026 to develop AI agents tailored to the financial sector, including joint development, training and staff exchanges. Upstage develops large language models and enterprise document-processing products, including its Upstage Studio platform, and became Korea's first generative AI unicorn with its Series C in April 2026. The company began with seed investment in 2020 and has raised funds in successive rounds since. |
| Apr 2026 | Series C | Primer Sazze Partners (lead); Woori Venture Partners; KB Securities; Hyundai; Mirae Asset Venture Investment; Premier Partners; InterVest Co.; Axiom Asia Private Capital; Kia; Shinhan Venture Investment | $119M | $661M | - |
| Feb 2026 | Strategic investment | SK Networks (lead) | $33M | $750M | - |
| Aug 2025 | Series B | Korea Development Bank (lead); KB Securities; AMD; Mirae Asset Venture Investment; Premier Partners; InterVest Co.; Primer Sazze Partners; Amazon Web Services; Shinhan Venture Investment | $45M | - | Upstage, a South Korean AI software company headquartered in Yongin with a U.S. office in San Jose, specializes in enterprise-grade generative AI solutions, including its proprietary Solar language model family and advanced document processing technology. The company's offerings include document parsing, automated task execution, workflow management, and a Universal Information Extractor used by Fortune 500 companies such as Samsung and widely adopted by Korean insurance firms and government institutions. In August 2025, Upstage completed a $45 million Series B bridge round led by Korea Development Bank, with new strategic investors Amazon and AMD joining existing investors including KB Securities, Shinhan Venture Investment, Mirae Asset Venture Investment, Primer Sazze Partners, and Premier Partners. The round brought Upstage's cumulative funding to $157 million, making it the most-funded AI software company in South Korea and positioning it toward unicorn status. The capital will support development of next-generation Solar capabilities, advance document AI products, fund sales and marketing expansion, and accelerate go-to-market efforts in the U.S. and Asia Pacific regions. This bridge round follows Upstage's $72 million Series B announced in April 2024, and the company was additionally recognized as the lead organization in Korea's national consortium for Independent AI Foundation Model Development by the Ministry of Science and ICT. |
| Apr 2024 | Series B | Hana Ventures (lead); Industrial Bank of Korea (lead); Korea Development Bank (lead); KT (lead); Mirae Asset Venture Investment (lead); SK Networks; SBVA; Premier Partners; Primer Sazze Partners; Company K Partners; Shinhan Venture Investment | $72M | - | Upstage is a South Korean AI startup founded in October 2020 that specializes in large language models (LLMs) and document processing technologies. The company developed Solar LLM, a flagship product that delivers GPT-4-level performance with high speed and cost-efficiency, and Document AI, a solution leveraging optical character recognition to automate document processing workflows in finance, healthcare, and other regulated industries. Notable clients include Samsung and Hanwha. On April 16, 2024, Upstage announced a Series B funding round raising $72 million from a consortium of investors including SK Networks, KT, Korea Development Bank, Shinhan Venture Investment, Hana Ventures, Mirae Asset Venture Investment, and Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK Securities), alongside existing investors SBVA (formerly SoftBank Ventures Asia), Primer Sazze Partners, Company K Partners, and Premier Partners. This round brought Upstage's cumulative funding to over $100 million since its founding, making it the most-funded AI software company in South Korea. The capital was intended to accelerate development of purpose-trained LLMs for global enterprises and expand its U.S. operations, including a new subsidiary established in February 2024 with headquarters in San Jose, California. The company planned to focus on enterprise-specific AI solutions for regulated industries while advancing open-source initiatives around data preprocessing and LLM evaluation. |
| Jan 2024 | Series B | SK Networks (lead) | $19M | - | Upstage is a Seoul-based generative AI startup specializing in small-scale Large Language Models (ssLLMs) like Solar, which topped Hugging Face's Open LLM Leaderboard in December 2023 and won multiple Kaggle competitions. It focuses on private, domain-specific models for information security, serving government agencies and financial institutions. SK Networks, an affiliate of SK Group, led Upstage's Series B funding round in December 2024 at CES with a 25 billion won ($19 million) investment, part of a larger $72 million Series B involving Korean investors including Shinhan Venture Investment. The deal aimed to support Upstage's global expansion using SK Networks' network and its data solutions subsidiary en-core. This Series B investment positioned SK Networks for deeper involvement, leading to a follow-on exercise of a call option in February 2026 with an additional 47 billion won ($33 million) for a 6.50% stake. In August 2025, Upstage raised a $45 million Series B bridge from KDB, Amazon, and AMD, bringing total funding to $157 million to enhance Solar, document AI, and U.S./APAC expansion, building on AWS collaboration. Upstage continued aggressive growth post-Series B, pursuing acquisitions like Daum portal for LLM data and government projects such as Korea's Independent AI Foundation Model. |
| Sep 2023 | Strategic investment | KT (lead) | $8M | - | Upstage Co., Ltd. received KRW 10 billion in funding from KT Corporation announced on September 10, 2023, with the transaction closing on September 11, 2023. KT Corporation participated as a new investor in the round. |
| Sep 2021 | Series A | Company K Partners (lead); SBVA (lead); Premier Partners; Primer Sazze Partners; TBT; Stonebridge Ventures | $27M | - | Upstage is a South Korea-based AI startup founded in October 2020 by experts from Naver CLOVA, including Kim Sung-hoon, Lee Hwal-suk, and Park Eun-Jeong. The company develops AI integrated solutions like AI Pack to enhance corporate core businesses, with a focus on technical skills in areas such as OCR, translation modeling, and large language models. In its first 8 months after inception, Upstage generated 8.8 billion won in revenue and received inquiries from over 100 companies on AI adoption. In September 2021, Upstage raised $27.3 million (31.6 billion KRW) in a Series A round led by Company K Partners and SoftBank Ventures Asia (SBVA), with participation from Premier Partners, Primer Sazze Partners, Stonebridge Ventures, and TBT Partners. Proceeds were allocated to accelerate AI Pack development and hire over 200 AI developers domestically and internationally by 2022. Upstage has since progressed with a $72 million Series B in April 2024 led by SK Networks, KT, and others including existing investors like SBVA and Company K Partners, bringing cumulative funding over $100 million at that time. A $45 million Series B bridge followed in August 2025 with KDB, Amazon, and AMD, raising total capital to $157 million to scale Document AI, Solar LLMs, and global expansion into the US and APAC. |
Who has invested in Upstage?
25 investors have backed Upstage across its funding rounds, including Premier Partners, Primer Sazze Partners, Mirae Asset Venture Investment, Shinhan Venture Investment, SK Networks and Korea Development Bank.
Lead investors include Primer Sazze Partners, SK Networks, Korea Development Bank, Hana Ventures, Industrial Bank of Korea and 4 other investors.
Upstage Investors
| Investor | HQ | Rounds | Role | First check |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | Participant | Sep 2021 | ||
| 4 | Lead | Sep 2021 | ||
| 3 | Lead | Jan 2024 | ||
| 3 | Lead | Apr 2024 | ||
| 3 | Participant | Apr 2024 | ||
| 2 | Participant | Aug 2025 | ||
| 2 | Lead | Sep 2021 | ||
| 2 | Lead | Apr 2024 | ||
| 2 | Participant | Aug 2025 | ||
| 2 | Lead | Sep 2023 | ||
| 2 | Lead | Sep 2021 | ||
| 1 | Lead | Apr 2024 | ||
| 1 | Lead | Apr 2024 | ||
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Start Free TrialAcquisitions by Upstage
Upstage has acquired 2 companies to date.
Last acquisition by Upstage was on June 8th 2026. Upstage acquired TimelyAI for undisclosed valuation.
Latest Acquisitions by Upstage
| Description | Timely AI is a South Korean AI platform that provides organizations and individuals with access to multiple large language models (LLMs) through a single integrated workspace. | Daum is a South Korean internet portal operated by Kakao Corporation. Seoul-based, it offers search, email, news, and web services to millions of users domestically. |
| HQ Country | ||
| HQ City | Daegu | - |
| Deal Date | 8 Jun 2026 | 29 Jan 2026 |
| Valuation | undisclosed | undisclosed |
| EV/Revenue | ||
| EV/EBITDA | ||
This data is available for Pro users. Sign up to see all Upstage acquisitions and their M&A valuation multiples. Start Free Trial | ||
Upstage Competitors
Upstage competitors include listed companies like Ncino and eFinance, and private ones like Rogo, Zest AI, infiBond and Vise.
| Company | HQ | Status | Revenue | EBITDA | Valuation | Revenue Multiple |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Private | $53M | - | $2B | - | ||
| Publicly listed | $595M | $65M | $2.4B | 4.2x | ||
| Private | $38M | - | $1.5B | 39.5x | ||
| Private | - | - | $1.3B | - | ||
| Private | - | - | $1B | - | ||
| Publicly listed | $121M | $63M | $1.4B | - |
Upstage Public Comps
Upstage is still privately-owned, but its public comps include eFinance, TRS Information Technology, Yusys Technologies, PCITECH, Fractal Analytics, Pagaya, Alkami Technology, Shenzhen Kingdom Sci-tech, Donnelley Financial Solutions and Haizhi.
| Last FY | EV/Revenue | EV/EBITDA | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | EBITDA | Last FY | LTM | 2027E | Last FY | LTM | 2027E | |
| $121M | $63M | 11.3x | - | 21.8x | - | |||
| $77M | ($20M) | 17.4x | 17.8x | (66.1x) | 433.4x | |||
| $544M | $67M | 2.0x | 2.0x | 16.4x | 14.8x | |||
| $1.5B | $53M | 0.8x | 0.8x | 23.2x | - | |||
| $347M | $50M | 3.7x | 3.4x | 25.7x | 20.3x | |||
| $1.3B | $33M | 1.0x | 0.9x | 39.3x | 2.9x | |||
| $444M | ($27M) | 3.6x | 3.1x | (59.9x) | 17.4x | |||
| $363M | ($15M) | 3.7x | 3.6x | (88.2x) | 100.3x | |||
This data is available for Pro users. Sign up to see all Upstage competitors and their valuation data. Start Free Trial | ||||||||
Common questions about Upstage
| When was Upstage founded? | Upstage was founded in 2020. |
| Where is Upstage headquartered? | Upstage is headquartered in Yongin, South Korea. |
| Is Upstage publicly listed? | No, Upstage is a private, VC-backed company. |
| What is Upstage's valuation? | Upstage was last valued at $1.5B in its Series C in October 2026. |
| How much funding has Upstage raised? | Upstage has raised $352M across 8 funding rounds. |
| What was Upstage's last funding round? | Upstage's last funding round was a $30M Series C in October 2026. |
| Who are Upstage's investors? | Upstage's investors include Premier Partners, Primer Sazze Partners, SK Networks, Mirae Asset Venture Investment, Shinhan Venture Investment, KB Securities, SBVA, Korea Development Bank, InterVest Co., KT and 15 others. |
| What is Upstage's revenue? | Upstage's latest recorded revenue is $19M (October 2026). |
| What is Upstage's revenue multiple? | Upstage's latest valuation implies a 78.5x revenue multiple ($1.5B valuation on $19M of revenue). |
| Which companies are comparable to Upstage? | Companies comparable to Upstage include Rogo, Ncino, Zest AI, infiBond, Vise and eFinance. |
| How many companies has Upstage acquired? | Upstage has acquired 2 companies, including TimelyAI and Daum. |
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