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KoreaTechDesk | Korean Startup and Technology News
Wed, February 25, 2026
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Korean AI startups often announce overseas expansion. Few anchor that move in revenue data and paid contracts. Waddle and its entry into the United States stands out because it reframes AI in e-commerce not as customer support, but as revenue infrastructure. For global founders and investors tracking Korea’s startup ecosystem, the shift signals a deeper change in how Korean AI companies position themselves abroad.
AI startup Waddle announced on February 23 that it has established a U.S. subsidiary, Waddle Labs, in San Francisco. The expansion is led by its AI growth agent, Gentoo AI. Co-founder Cho Yong-won will head the U.S. entity.
The company’s U.S. push follows its first-place win among 93 global teams at the OpenAI GPT-5 Hackathon held in San Francisco in August last year. After launching Gentoo AI on the U.S. Shopify App Store in September, Waddle secured paid contracts with more than ten U.S. brands, including companies in San Francisco and Los Angeles.
According to the company, four e-commerce firms that adopted Gentoo AI immediately after launch recorded an average monthly transaction volume increase of more than 35 percent within four months.
Waddle describes Gentoo AI not as a chatbot but as an execution-driven AI agent focused on real-time conversion rate optimization in e-commerce.
In Korea, Gentoo AI was positioned as an “AI sales associate.” Its core function centered on improving purchase conversion through user conversations and automating repetitive inquiries.
The global version reflects a broader operational scope. It uses digital clones built from accumulated user conversation data in Korea to diagnose and improve factors that hinder purchase conversion across online shopping malls. Waddle calls this role an “AI shopping mall operator.”
With this distinction, the company is shifting from conversation-level support to diagnosing so-called growth blockers embedded in checkout flows, product structures, and customer interaction patterns. The stated goal is to replace or reduce reliance on shopping mall operations teams and external agencies while increasing revenue.
The U.S. expansion therefore tests whether a Korean-built AI powered ecommerce growth platform can function as core infrastructure in a mature and highly competitive market.
Cho Yong-won, Co-founder and CEO of Waddle Labs, said:
“After last year’s OpenAI hackathon, we gained confidence that Gentoo AI’s technology is competitive on the global stage. This led to actual contracts in the United States and enabled us to expand our business rapidly.
We will continue advancing AI structures optimized for the U.S. market to provide tangible revenue growth support to global e-commerce operators.”
He added that Waddle plans to continue advancing AI structures optimized for the U.S. market to provide tangible revenue growth support to global e-commerce operators.
Waddle’s move fits a broader pattern in the Korean AI startup US expansion narrative. Korean startups increasingly seek validation in global markets, particularly in North America, rather than relying solely on domestic growth.
Yet what differentiates this case is the framing. Many AI startups remain positioned around chatbot automation or customer service efficiency. Waddle is explicitly targeting AI conversion rate optimization ecommerce outcomes. That places it closer to revenue infrastructure than engagement tooling.
For investors and ecosystem analysts, this reflects a potential evolution in Korea’s AI startup playbook. Instead of exporting cost-efficient SaaS, companies are attempting to integrate into performance-critical systems such as sales conversion and transaction optimization.
The fact that Gentoo AI launched on the Shopify App Store also situates Waddle inside an established global commerce platform. Shopify is widely used by small and mid-sized merchants in the United States. Entry through this channel reduces distribution friction and provides measurable performance benchmarks.
The reported 35 percent increase in average monthly transaction volume among four companies should be read carefully. The base size of those companies is not disclosed. Still, the emphasis on transaction growth rather than user engagement indicates a revenue-centered metric that global venture capital increasingly prioritizes.
Korea’s startup ecosystem has long faced questions about global scalability and defensibility. Moves such as this suggest that some startups are attempting to anchor international expansion in product-market validation and performance data rather than brand positioning alone.
Waddle’s U.S. entry does not yet confirm large-scale market penetration. The company has secured more than ten paid contracts and established a San Francisco subsidiary. That is early traction, not dominance.
The next test lies in sustained client retention, scalability across larger merchants, and continued performance validation in a competitive AI commerce tools market.
For global founders considering Korea as a partner market, and for policymakers seeking to strengthen Korea’s position in cross-border venture ecosystems, the case offers a clear lesson. Global expansion must be tied to measurable business outcomes. Recognition, such as an OpenAI GPT-5 Hackathon win, can open doors. Long-term credibility depends on revenue performance.
If Korean startups continue to reposition AI as operational revenue infrastructure rather than surface-level automation, the ecosystem’s global profile may gradually shift from experimentation to real execution.
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