[DigitalToday reporter Chi-gyu Hwang] Fintech company Finger said on Thursday it will move into the "physical AI" business by acquiring industrial robot intelligence company Michelo Robotics.

Finger signed a contract to acquire Michelo Robotics for 16 billion won. The deal will be carried out by purchasing 500,000 existing shares held by CEO Jang Jun (박장준) and others.

Founded in 2022, Michelo Robotics has focused on technology specialised in automating surface-treatment processes such as painting, sanding, polishing and deburring in the physical AI field.

Its core technologies, Michelo-Motion and Michelo-Vision, learn skilled workers' manual technique data and reproduce it as precise robot movements. It also provides a "no-code" environment that integrates control of different robot hardware, including Universal Robots, Yaskawa and Kawasaki, on a single platform.

Finger plans to pursue "vertical AI integration" that links various companies' manufacturing-site databases, Michelo Robotics' physical AI, its own financial AI and an ontology-based intelligent platform into a single value chain.

A Finger official said, "We will create a structure in which actual process data improves robot intelligence learning performance, and the results in turn lead to higher productivity at manufacturing sites." The official added, "There is clear market demand in that it can solve structural challenges facing domestic manufacturing, such as the ageing of skilled workers and labour shortages, through a 'human-in-the-loop' approach."