Startups originating from KAIST have recently been gaining prominence in the global investment market. KAIST announced on the 23rd that Poin2 Technology, co-founded by Professor Bae Hyun-min of the School of Electrical Engineering and his former students, completed a USD 76 million (approximately KRW 100 billion) investment round on the 21st (local time) from global investment firms including Maverick Silicon and UMC Capital.

The core technology behind this investment in Poin2 Technology is its “e-tube” technology. AI data centers connect thousands of semiconductors, but conventional copper cables face limitations in transmission distance, while optical fibers have been criticized for high costs and power consumption.

The e-tube technology developed by the KAIST research team is a data transmission technology based on plastic waveguides that utilize radio frequency signals. Using this technology, transmission distance can be extended tenfold compared with copper cables, and power consumption and costs can each be reduced to one-third of those of optical fibers. The company was also named a “2026 Pioneer” by BloombergNEF, a global energy and technology analytics firm.

The KAIST Center for Entrepreneurship has produced a number of successful companies including Poin2 Technology. Rainbow Robotics, now a subsidiary of Samsung Electronics, AI medical imaging analysis company Lunit, biotech startup Curecell, and Oncocross are among the firms that successfully went public through KAIST’s startup support programs.

Bae Hyun-min, head of the KAIST Center for Entrepreneurship, stated, “We will continue to strengthen support so that startups with outstanding technologies can rapidly enter global markets.”

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