With advances in artificial intelligence and digital platforms, all industries are at a turning point. In particular, the goods market and the brand product manufacturing industry have grown rapidly in recent years, and a full-scale push for digital transformation is also taking hold in this field.

Diver, led by CEO Kim Jun-bae, has developed a manufacturing-focused software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform. It is presenting what it calls a structural solution to past factory-floor practices that relied on phone calls and messaging apps.

Kang Dong-gyun (강동균), director of operations, said, "Diver is a platform that turns a brand's value into tangible products." He said Diver would break down the analogue limits of traditional manufacturing with its technology and create a new standard for the manufacturing industry.

◆SaaS platform presents a new standard for the manufacturing industry

What Diver is focusing on is the SaaS platform business. A business-to-business (B2B) enterprise bulk-purchasing efficiency SaaS platform is "an internal operations support solution that helps manage the entire process efficiently when producing and purchasing a brand's products."

The platform is being developed in stages, centered on core functions, and some client companies are using it. Kang said it keeps existing methods but provides selectively more convenient options in repetitive tasks and management areas.

Kang said the reason for building the SaaS platform was clear. He said repeated requests from clients and growing needs to improve internal operational efficiency made it necessary to solve issues structurally. He stressed that the company aims to evolve into a subscription-based software model that allows anyone to easily place and manage production orders.

This goes beyond a simple service expansion and means a paradigm shift across the manufacturing industry. Diver's goal is to innovate an analogue-centered manufacturing industry into a data-centered, high value-added model.

◆Connecting fragmented manufacturing processes into a single digital workflow

Diver's development of the SaaS platform started from its identity that "Diver is a partner that helps brands focus only on their essence." It aimed to provide solutions to what it sees as the biggest problems companies face when making products and how to solve them.

Kang said difficulties start from the product planning stage. He said many planners may not know what products are on the market or what they should make. Diver has addressed this by presenting a portfolio of products that previously excited customers, having them choose a product, and then connecting them with a manufacturing plant.

The production stage is the same. Even after selecting a product, many do not know where to manufacture it. Diver has turned all these issues into data and built them in an integrated way in the form of an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. Distribution and settlement are handled in the same way.

Kang said the platform was designed so companies can manage the entire process, from planning to production, distribution and settlement, on a single platform. He said this is Diver's core competitiveness.

Diver's innovation does not stop there. From March, it plans to expand the system to partner factories. The moment factories manage orders directly through Diver's system, chronic inefficiencies in manufacturing sites will begin to be fundamentally resolved.

◆Field-friendly data is Diver's competitiveness

The reason Diver's SaaS platform is drawing attention in the industry is its "field-friendly data."

Kang said it systemized the actual operating logic verified in the field by successfully completing tens of thousands of projects, rather than a theoretical system created at a desk. He said this was why Diver was able to record explosive growth of about 2,000 percent over 5 years, and what he sees as the source of customers' enthusiasm.

External evaluations are also positive. Diver was selected for the "2025 Startup-Centered University" programme supported by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups and the Korea Entrepreneurship Foundation and hosted by Hanyang University, and was evaluated as an excellent company.

◆Focusing on global standardisation starting with Japan

In the short term, Diver plans to secure a digital standard in the domestic manufacturing market by reaching revenue of 25.0 billion won by 2027. That would mean growth of about 2.3 times from current levels. It also plans to step up efforts to standardise globally, starting with Japan.

Diver's ultimate goal is to become the "world's No. 1 production operations platform" by recording revenue of 300.0 billion won in 2030 and an operating profit margin of 21 percent.

Kang said the company is seeking Series A investment to speed up innovation and expand into global markets, and asked for interest. He added that Diver is not simply a company that makes products on behalf of others, but a "manufacturing tech company" that innovates an analogue-centered manufacturing industry into a data-centered, high value-added model.