Seoul-based Datumo raises $15.5M to take on Scale AI, backed by Salesforce

Summary

Most organizations say they aren’t fully prepared to use generative AI in a safe and responsible way, according to a recent McKinsey report. One concern is explainability — understanding how and why AI makes certain decisions. While 40% of respondents view it as a significant risk, only 17% are actively addressing it, per the report. Seoul-based Datumo began as an AI data labeling company and now wants to help businesses build safer AI with tools and data that enable testing, monitoring, and improving their models — without requiring technical expertise. On Monday the startup raised $15.5 million, which brings its total raised to approximately $28 million, from investors including Salesforce Ventures, KB Investment, ACVC Partners and SBI Investment, among others. David Kim, CEO of Datumo and a former AI researcher at Korea’s Agency for Defence Development, was frustrated by the time-consuming nature of data labeling so he came up with a new idea: a reward-based app that lets anyone label data in their spare time and earn money. The startup validated the idea at a startup competition at KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology). Kim co-founded Datumo, formerly known as SelectStar, alongside five KAIST alumni in 2018. Even before the app was fully built, Datumo secured tens of thousands of dollars in pre-contract sales during the customer discovery phase of the competition, mostly from KAIST alumni-led businesses and startups. In its first year, the startup surpassed $1 million in revenue and secured several key contracts. Today, the startup counts major Korean companies like Samsung, Samsung SDS, LG Electronics, LG CNS, Hyundai, Naver, and Seoul-based telecom giant SK Telecom among its clients. Several years ago, however, clients began asking the company to go beyond simple data labeling. The seven-year-old startup now has more than 300 clients in South Korea and generated about $6 million in revenue in 2024. “They wanted us to score their AI model o...