Validated for excellence in vertical AI and long-term business stability
Growth doubled year-over-year driven by the AI platform ‘Runway’…targeting an IPO in the first half of 2026

 

SEOUL, South Korea, November 11, 2025— MakinaRocks, a leader in vertical AI, announced today that it has earned ‘A, A’ ratings in South Korea’s official technology evaluation for a KOSDAQ special listing. The achievement paves the way for the company to pursue its initial public offering (IPO) in the first half of 2026.

To qualify for the KOSDAQ’s special listing, companies must receive ratings of A-BBB or higher from both designated evaluation agencies. MakinaRocks received an ‘A’ rating from NICE D&B and another ‘A’ from E Credible, underscoring both its technological strength and the accelerating commercial adoption of its AI platform, Runway.

MakinaRocks develops high-performance vertical AI, tailored for mission-critical domains such as manufacturing and defense—industries that demand reliability, security, and deep domain expertise. With extensive deployment across real-world industrial environments, the company has secured over 100 core patents. In the field of AI-driven design and optimization, MakinaRocks holds the second-highest number of patents in South Korea, following Samsung Electronics.

At the center of the company’s growth is Runway, MakinaRocks’ fully proprietary AI platform that supports the end-to-end lifecycle of AI operations—from development and deployment to monitoring and retraining. The platform is engineered to operate reliably even in closed, high-security, and air-gapped environments, a capability that is uncommon among general-purpose AI platforms. Runway is now used beyond manufacturing, including in defense and finance, contributing to a more-than-twofold increase in annual contracted revenue compared to last year.

Runway has also earned significant global recognition. MakinaRocks was the only Korean company selected in the AI Development Platform category of the Global MLOps Market Map published by U.S. research firm CB Insights. The platform was further recognized by the AI Infrastructure Alliance (AIIA)—a global alliance of more than 40 global technology companies and over 40,000 data and AI professionals—as one of the platforms offering the broadest operational coverage, alongside AWS SageMaker, Google Vertex AI, and Microsoft  Azure.

Founded in 2017, MakinaRocks is regarded as one of South Korea’s first-generation vertical AI companies. The company has secured strategic investments from global industrial leaders including Applied Ventures, GS, Hanwha, Hyundai Motor, LG, POSCO, Samsung, and SK, totaling approximately 50 billion KRW. MakinaRocks has also been named a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer (2020) and was selected among the World’s Top 100 AI Companies (CB Insights AI 100, 2023).

MakinaRocks’ credibility has been further strengthened through participation in key national AI initiatives, including:

  • the Ministry of Science and ICT’s Sovereign AI foundation model project (Upstage Consortium)
  • designated as an AI specialist company within the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy’s Manufacturing AX Alliance, and
  • selection as the only AI platform provider in the Defense Acquisition Program Administration’s Defense Innovation 100.

“MakinaRocks’ mission is not to replace human expertise, but to build specialized intelligence that elevates industrial performance to unprecedented levels,” said Andre S. Yoon, CEO of MakinaRocks. “As AI becomes the operating language of global industry, we believe our value will continue to be validated—both in the field and in the capital markets.”