※ Kyungpook National University (KNU) Startup Support Foundation, together with SKT, operates the “Startup Leap Package (Large Enterprise Collaboration Track)” for startups. It promotes innovative growth by activating startups’ ideas and technological capabilities based on collaboration with large enterprises. IT Donga introduces promising startups participating in the KNU–SKT Collaboration Track of the Startup Leap Package.

Coxwave has developed the generative artificial intelligence (AI) analytics platform “Coxwave Align” (hereinafter Align). Through user behavior analysis and feedback-based quantitative evaluation, Align monitors, analyzes, and evaluates interactions between AI and users, supporting improvements in the efficiency of corporate AI services and providing deep insights derived from actual usage data. Coxwave plans to add AI guardrail technology capable of real-time tracking and immediate problem detection and response, to ensure safe operation of AI services even in sensitive business domains such as finance, healthcare, and law.

Coxwave is collaborating with SK Telecom (SKT) through the “Startup Leap Package – Large Enterprise Collaboration Type,” a program supported by the Korea SMEs and Startups Agency under the Ministry of SMEs and Startups and overseen by the KNU Startup Support Foundation. Together with SKT and Anthropic, the company co-hosted the SK AI Summit 2025 Hackathon last year and plans to carry out various collaborations this year as well.

IT Donga spoke with Coxwave CEO Joo-won Kim about Coxwave and Align.


Founded to improve inefficiencies in AI data analytics and model training

IT Donga: Thank you for joining us, CEO Kim. Please introduce yourself.

CEO Joo-won Kim: Hello, I am Joo-won Kim, Country CEO and Co-founder of Coxwave. I graduated from the Department of Computer Science at Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) and worked at Qraft Technologies for about three years from 2017. After that, I entered the master’s program at Seoul National University, and in 2021, I founded Coxwave together with colleagues from the Data Mining Lab.

IT Donga: What led you to establish Coxwave?

CEO Kim: In 2021, the Data Mining Lab at Seoul National University was closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. After that, I participated in hackathons and AI competitions with my lab colleagues, and in preparing for these competitions, I acutely felt the inefficiencies of repetitive data analysis and model training tasks. I recognized the need for a data-driven AI training solution that could automate these processes, and with like-minded colleagues from the lab, we founded Coxwave to develop such a solution ourselves.

IT Donga: Please introduce Coxwave. What kind of company is it?

CEO Kim: Under the vision of “helping partner companies become the best in their respective industries through AI-based solutions and strategies,” Coxwave pursues “impact expansion,” going beyond influencing many through a single product to enabling 100 companies to deliver optimal customer experiences using AI.

The company name is a compound of “Cox,” referring to the coxswain who directs the course in rowing, and “Wave,” symbolizing the uncertain startup environment and rapidly changing technology trends. It reflects our ambition to become a company that provides direction for partner companies amid turbulent technological change.

In the early days of the startup, we targeted the B2B market and tried various approaches. However, doing this while still being graduate students was not easy. So we shifted our focus to the B2C market and, in 2022, launched the AI image eraser “Hama” and the image search engine “Enterpix.” Within eight months of launch, Hama and Enterpix secured 1.3 million users. In 2023, we sold both services to Sandoll Metalab, a subsidiary of Sandoll, a company specializing in font content. This case is considered the first successful M&A of a generative AI product in Korea.

Currently, Coxwave provides the generative AI analytics platform Align, an AX (AI Transformation) consulting service, and “Edutap,” an AI tutor agent platform.

IT Donga: Why did you decide to sell Hama and Enterpix?

CEO Kim: While operating Hama and Enterpix, we felt it was a significant limitation that there were no services capable of sufficiently analyzing AI user experiences such as user behavior patterns or AI feedback. Existing analytics tools are effective for structured data analysis—such as which buttons users clicked, which pages they visited, and how long they stayed—but they have limitations in grasping the intent and context within conversations between AI and users. So we built our own AI service analytics solution for internal use. Then we realized that as AI services proliferate, other companies would also need such a service. At that time, Sandoll Metalab proposed an acquisition, and we decided to proceed with the sale in order to focus on the B2B business of productizing the internal analytics service we had been using.


Align, analyzing interactions between users and AI

IT Donga: After selling Hama and Enterpix, you introduced Align. What kind of solution is it?

CEO Kim: Align is the solution version of the analytics service we had been using internally. Align is an analytics platform for improving generative AI services. Through user behavior analysis and feedback-based quantitative evaluation, it monitors, analyzes, and evaluates interactions between AI and users, thereby supporting service efficiency improvements and providing deep insights derived from actual usage data.

Align compares the database provided by the company with user queries and AI’s final responses to evaluate whether there are distortions, whether causal relationships are appropriate, whether there are errors in numerical data, whether the responses comply with corporate policies, and whether actions such as API calls or access to the corporate DB are appropriate, and detects anomalies. The criteria for determining anomalies can be configured to match each client’s needs.

Align goes beyond keyword matching to analyze the context and flow of conversations, detecting even drawbacks perceived by users. In addition, based on its hands-on experience selling the first generative AI product in Korea, it provides metrics that are practically needed by product managers (PMs) and data analysts.

IT Donga: How have client companies responded to Align?

CEO Kim: Align was officially launched in January 2024 and currently has 300–400 corporate clients. In the early stage, we provided the service in a SaaS (Software as a Service) format, but some clients were reluctant to use SaaS due to data security concerns, so we now provide the service in various forms tailored to corporate environments. We are currently discussing adoption with clients in telecommunications and finance, where reliability is paramount.

Most client feedback has been positive. For example, Fast Campus applied Align to its AI tutor “Chemi.” By analyzing the causes of negative feedback and proposing response guidelines, it reduced user dissatisfaction by 30% and more than doubled conversation duration. For Cleon’s character chatbot “Almigo,” Align helped empirically prove differences in behavior patterns between churned users and power users, resulting in a 15% reduction in churn and a 24% increase in power users.

For Fundamento, an Indian AI Contact Center (AICC) company, the high volume of calls made it difficult to identify cases where the AI responded incorrectly, but after introducing Align, the company reported high satisfaction, saying that it became much easier to detect errors.


IT Donga: In addition to Align, you also provide AX consulting and Edutap. Please introduce these services.

CEO Kim: The AX consulting service is a consulting offering that supports companies in their strategic AI transformation. Drawing on our technological capabilities, experience, and know-how in data engineering, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), domain-specific machine learning (ML) and AI, developed while building and operating AI services ourselves, we support the entire process from ideation to the construction of actual services.

Traditional consulting often proceeds based on a specific solution or platform. In contrast, we first analyze each company’s real situation, business processes, and current issues, and then propose AI services suitable for them. As we repeated these consulting engagements, we concluded that we had gained expertise in product configuration that contributes to improving corporate utility and generating outcomes, and we are now in the process of productizing this expertise.

Edutap is an AI tutor agent platform designed to generate tangible learning outcomes. Applied to learning management systems (LMS), it enables easy execution of real-time Q&A during lectures, customized quiz generation, and support for learning by difficulty level. By applying Align to Edutap, we are directly verifying its effectiveness and user response.

Active collaboration with PwC, Anthropic, OpenAI, SKT and others

IT Donga: Coxwave is also known for its active collaborations with global companies.

CEO Kim: We collaborate with global companies such as PwC India, Anthropic, and OpenAI. In the case of PwC India, we met through a connection with one of our early members and found that our needs aligned, which led to collaboration. With Anthropic, we have entered into a foundation model partnership. As we were using a large volume of their APIs, Anthropic took an interest, we held meetings, and have since built a close relationship. We have co-hosted events such as summits and hackathons. As for OpenAI, we began collaborating out of a shared desire to contribute to the Korean developer community. We plan to hold various events with OpenAI going forward.

IT Donga: You are also collaborating with SKT through the Startup Leap Package – Large Enterprise Collaboration Type program. Please tell us about this.

CEO Kim: We are working with the KNU Startup Support Foundation and SKT through the Startup Leap Package – Large Enterprise Collaboration Type program supported by the Korea SMEs and Startups Agency under the Ministry of SMEs and Startups.

With SKT, we co-hosted the SK AI Summit 2025 Hackathon in November last year. The event was jointly hosted by SKT, Anthropic, and Coxwave. SKT was responsible for the venue and overall event planning, Anthropic provided the hackathon theme and technical credits, and we handled participant recruitment, on-site technical support, and overall event operations. In addition, we plan to carry out various collaborations this year.


IT Donga: Lastly, please share your future plans and goals.

CEO Kim: For Align, we plan to add AI guardrail technology. AI guardrails are technologies that check AI responses before they are delivered to users and allow them to be sent only if no issues are detected, by detecting and blocking anomalies in real time. Through this, we aim to ensure safe AI operation even in sensitive business domains such as finance, healthcare, and law. With our AI guardrail technology, we were selected for the global scale-up TIPS program in December last year, and we have completed a proof of concept (PoC) and are in discussions with clients regarding adoption. In parallel, we are advancing our technology, including model lightweighting, to enable real-time AI evaluation.

For the AX consulting service, we plan to expand into various industries such as e-commerce, public institutions, and MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conventions, Exhibitions), building on collaboration experience with PwC India, Meta, and Microsoft, and to support the AI transformation of domestic and overseas education companies through Edutap. At the same time, we will continue to expand cooperation with global AI companies such as Anthropic, OpenAI, and NVIDIA to maintain our technological competitiveness and support the joint growth of the domestic AI ecosystem.

Our ultimate goal is to establish ourselves as a company that, through AI reliability technology and AX consulting, helps partner companies confidently utilize AI and secure global leadership in their respective industrial sectors.

IT Donga, reporter Man-hyuk Han (mh@itdonga.com)

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