Bunker Kids, the operator of AI character chat service Whif, said on Monday it raised 15 billion won in a Series A round.

Investors included Kolon Investment, Kakao Ventures, Mirae Asset Capital, We Ventures, BSK Investment, Murex Investment, Crit Ventures and Samchully Investment.

Whif is an interactive content platform where users talk with AI characters, build relationships and create stories based on their choices. Users can also create and share AI characters themselves.

The company said Whif’s paying users spend an average of 217 minutes a day on the service. It said payments grew 110 percent a month on average in the nine months after launch, and monthly revenue rose to about 1,000 times the initial level within a year of launch.

It is also expanding overseas business. Whif launched services in Japan, Taiwan, Thailand and the United States in October last year and now operates in 13 countries. About 40 percent of total revenue comes from overseas, and it aims to raise the overseas revenue share to more than 60 percent by year-end.

Bunker Kids said it will use the funds to upgrade its product and expand in global markets. It plans to apply multimodal technology combining images and video to the service and to enhance content and user experience by country. It will also expand hiring across development, planning, design and marketing.

Bunker Kids is made up of talent from technology companies such as Coupang and Toss, centered on Chief Executive Jeong Seung-wan (정승완).

Jeong said, "The AI character chat market is also reaching a new turning point as it expands into multimodal content combining images and video," and added, "Whif will create a new content experience."