Global B2B distribution platform company Buying Square (CEO Choi Jeong-hyun) has been finally selected as a beneficiary of the ‘Global TIPS R&D’ support program overseen by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups. Accordingly, it will receive a total of KRW 5.0 billion in government funding over four years. The secured funds will be invested in building and commercializing a system that uses artificial intelligence technology to support overseas market entry and business-to-business (B2B) transactions for Korean brands. The official title of this research project is “Development and commercialization of a hybrid overseas distribution optimization market intelligence AI platform combining LLM and SLM models to expand global market entry of K-brands.”

The research focuses on translating the strengthened position of Korean brands in the global market into actual contract signings and export performance. Until now, Korean companies have had to conduct market research, identify business partners, localize product information, review costs and logistics, and process administrative documents separately when opening overseas sales channels. As a result, they heavily relied on individual practitioners’ experience or limited personal networks, which led to significant time and cost consumption and made it difficult to predict the likelihood of contracts in advance.

Buying Square plans to address these challenges by implementing a market intelligence system that integrates and analyzes information related to products, local markets, buyers, distribution networks, and supply chains. Its aim is not merely to deliver information, but to integrate the entire process—from product registration and client proposals to customs clearance and export documentation, orders and payments, and logistics linkage—into a single system.

The system to be built will adopt a hybrid structure that simultaneously utilizes a large language model (LLM) and a small language model (SLM). The LLM will be responsible for comprehensive decision-making, such as conducting detailed analysis of overseas market trends and providing strategic grounds, while the SLM will swiftly handle repetitive operational tasks such as product registration and document generation. An additional algorithm analyzing correlations among products, markets, and buyers will be introduced to enable pre-comparison and verification of performance and risk factors for each market entry route.

Brands adopting this system will be able to prioritize suitable countries and cities, distribution channels, and counterparties for their products, and establish concrete market entry strategies that take into account projected sales, costs, and risk factors. Furthermore, by leveraging artificial intelligence for issuing quotations, preparing trade documents, and managing orders, they will be able to reduce the burden of operating overseas businesses.

Buying Square currently operates local subsidiaries in the United States, China, Japan, and Hong Kong, and runs “VIBE TWLV,” an exhibition space in Brooklyn, New York, to expand local distribution businesses for K-fashion and beauty brands. Going forward, it plans to use these overseas bases as testbeds for the new system and to reflect local market and client requirements in technology development in real time.

Buying Square, which has connected domestic and overseas brands via a digital catalog-type B2B wholesale platform, has so far recorded a cumulative transaction volume of KRW 170 billion and cumulative investment attracted of KRW 22.1 billion. The outcomes of this R&D project will not only be applied to its existing wholesale platform, but will also be expanded into a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model that supports overseas expansion for Korean brands.

Buying Square CEO Choi Jeong-hyun stated, “Selection for the Global TIPS program is the result of our distribution experience built in the field, transaction data, and capabilities in operating overseas bases being recognized for their technological value. We will do our utmost to help Korean companies reduce the burden of complex administrative procedures and focus on their core product development and branding, while at the same time utilizing overseas distribution networks that connect market analysis through to order conclusion.”

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