AI retail solutions company FaindersAI said on Wednesday it was selected for the Ministry of SMEs and Startups' "2026 TIPS R&D deep-tech track".

Deep-tech TIPS is a programme under which the government supports R&D funding for technology startups found and invested in by private investors. FaindersAI will receive up to 1.5 billion won over 3 years. After completing the general TIPS track in 2022 with an "excellent" assessment, it will carry out its second TIPS project with operator Kkeunrim Ventures.

The company plans to use the project to advance the core technology of its AI self-checkout solution, Vision Checkout (VCO). It will develop an AI model that learns both multi-angle 2D images and 3D shape information to improve recognition accuracy for products that overlap, stack up or have irregular shapes.

VCO generates a payment list when products are placed on a checkout counter, with cameras and AI recognising multiple items at once without barcodes. The company plans to simplify procedures for registering new products and cut hardware costs by making the AI model lighter.

Myungwon Ham (함명원), co-CEO of FaindersAI, said: "If we proved fully unmanned store technology in the general TIPS track, in the deep-tech track we will secure both accuracy and cost for AI self-checkout counters and lead the global unmanned retail market."