Soul Art (CEO Oh Hyuk-jae), a developer of AI-based VR (virtual reality) tracking solutions, announced on the 16th that it had attracted seed investment from Mashup Ventures .
Soul Art is developing 'Soul Art Station', a tracking solution that accurately tracks the user's full body movements without wearing any equipment, and 'Soul Art App', a VR tracking software that can be freely used in any environment.
Soul Art's system features precise spatial reinterpretation technology and optimized on-device AI processing technology, which reduces the cost of expensive 3D recognition sensors compared to existing VR trackers, lowering the construction cost by 25% while increasing the motion recognition rate.
Furthermore, based on its built-in neural processing unit (NPU), it can be utilized in various fields of human recognition, including not only games but also simulations and digital twins (virtual replicas). Recognizing this technological excellence, SoulArt was selected for the TIPS Deep Tech Track, hosted by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, securing 1.5 billion won in R&D funding.
CEO Oh Hyuk-jae entered KAIST as a computer science major and demonstrated exceptional development skills, winning the grand prize at the Korea Informatics Olympiad. While serving in the military, he developed the idea for a wearable VR tracker, winning awards at competitions such as "Challenge! K-Startup" and the "Chung Ju-yung Entrepreneurship Competition." After his military service, Oh launched his own startup with former COO Jeon Daum, a classmate from his science high school and KAIST computer science department.
SoulArt CEO Oh Hyuk-jae said, “We are preparing for the official product launch at the end of the year, and our ultimate goal is to enable general users to easily enjoy the fully immersive VR experience that we have only seen in movies,” adding, “We plan to expand the recruitment of excellent engineers in the field of human-centered perception who share and support SoulArt’s vision.”
Eunwoo Park, a partner at Mashup Ventures who led this investment, said, “Despite high user demand, VR full-body trackers are an area with many issues to address, such as high prices and uncomfortable fit.” He added, “I highly value the potential of a team with outstanding technical skills and domain knowledge systematically solving problems they experienced directly while using VR trackers.”
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