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Waddle

Category: AI Agents

Waddle develops Gentoo, an AI-powered shopping agent for e-commerce platforms that acts as a virtual clerk to guide customers and increase purchase conversions. Waddle was founded in 2019. The company is led by Jihyuk Park. Based in Seoul, South Korea. Team size: 10. Total funding raised: 2.7 billion won. Latest round: Pre-Series A. Key investors include Kakao Ventures, Bon Angels, Fast Ventures.

Founded
2019
Headquarters
Seoul, South Korea
Team size
10
Total funding
2.7 billion won

Value proposition

Converts hesitant online shoppers into paying customers by providing an interactive, human-like AI assistant offering personalized product recommendations and guidance beyond typical FAQ chatbots.

Products and solutions

Gentoo AI Agent, AI Shopping Concierge Solution (B2B SaaS)

Unique value

Uses a multi-agent architecture that combines multiple large and slim Large Language Models to enhance response accuracy and contextual understanding versus single-model systems.

Target customer

E-commerce businesses and online shopping malls aiming to improve customer engagement and sales.

Industries served

E-commerce, Online Retail

Technology advantage

This multi-agent system enables more natural, effective conversations that improve customer conversion rates. The B2B SaaS model supports scalable deployment. Recognized by OpenAI with the 'Most AGI Potential' award.

How they differentiate

Gentoo is accessible to individual sellers on any virtual marketplace, unlike competitors limited to their own ecosystems. Its multi-agent system improves search accuracy and delivers personalized shopping experiences.

Main competitors

Amazon Rufus, Perplexity, Salesforce Commerce Cloud

Key partnerships

OpenAI (Enterprise contract partner), South Korean government's 2025 AI voucher support project, Kakao Ventures (Investor and partner), Cafe24 (e-commerce platform partnership to offer Gentoo to merchants)

Notable customers

Kyobo Life Insurance, 11th Street, Samsung Well Story

Major milestones

Signed enterprise contract with OpenAI, Selected as one of Forbes Asia's top 100 promising companies, Released Gentoo 2.0 with enhanced recommendation features, Chosen as supplier for South Korean Ministry of SMEs and Startups' 2025 AI voucher support project, Won 1st place at OpenAI GPT-5 Hackathon (Aug 2025), Launched US subsidiary Waddle Labs in San Francisco (Feb 2026)

Growth metrics

Detailed growth metrics such as user numbers or revenue are not publicly disclosed.

Market positioning

Positioned as a conversational AI shopping agent to boost e-commerce customer conversion by engaging users about to leave sites, targeting the growing AI-driven e-commerce sector.

Geographic focus

Primarily focused on the South Korean market with major Korean clients, but with global ambitions via enterprise partnership with OpenAI.

Patents and IP

No public information available on patents or intellectual property.

About Jihyuk Park

Founder of Waddle, started as a KAIST student in 2018. Developed 'Sori Market' for visually impaired shoppers and later created the AI agent 'Gentoo'. Recognized in Forbes Korea's '30 Leaders Under 30' in 2023.

Official website: