The Korea Playbook for Bay Area Physical AI Founders
The Korea Playbook for Bay Area Physical AI Founders
Important Registration Notice
This is an in-person event in San Francisco with limited capacity.
Attendance is subject to approval, and submitting a registration does not guarantee a spot. Every RSVP will be reviewed to keep the gathering focused and relevant.
Approved guests will receive a confirmation email with event details.
About the Event
Antler Korea and Antler San Francisco are bringing together Bay Area founders, investors, and operators working across physical AI, robotics, hardware, and emerging technology.
The evening will feature Sungjoon Cho, Founder & Managing Partner of Fortitude Ventures, Diane Choi, Investor at Samsung Next, and Jiho Kang, Partner at Antler Korea, for a practical conversation on where Korea fits into the global physical AI landscape, what makes an Asia strategy credible, and how founders can turn technical advantage into real deployment and commercial scale.
This is a founder-first community gathering, not a formal conference or pitch event. Expect candid discussion, food, drinks, and open networking.
For physical AI, the model is rarely the bottleneck
What's hard sits downstream of it: who can actually build the thing at volume, who will buy the first one, and where it's allowed to run in the real world.
Most founders solve those three separately, in three different countries, over three different years.
Korea has the highest robot density of any country in the world, sitting on top of an industrial base that spans semiconductors, automotive, batteries, robotics, shipbuilding, steel, electronics, and advanced manufacturing.
What makes that useful to an early-stage team is how tightly the ecosystem is packed. Suppliers, enterprise customers, manufacturing partners, and real-world deployment environments can often sit within the same industrial networks.
For US founders, that creates an opportunity to explore Korea not simply as another market, but as a place to build, validate, deploy, and scale physical technology.
What we'll get into
The Asia / Korea Landscape
Where Korea is genuinely underrated next to Japan and Taiwan as US hardware manufacturing shifts away from China — and where it isn't.
Capturing the Opportunity
What makes an Asia strategy credible to an investor versus simply another slide in the deck, and what founders need to demonstrate when approaching industrial partners.
From Technology to Deployment
Where founders lose six months, what it takes to move from technical validation to real-world deployment, and whether founders need to be on the ground in Asia or can succeed with the right network and presence.
Who this is for
Founders building physical AI, robotics, hardware, semiconductor, and industrial technology companies
Technical leads and operators responsible for manufacturing, deployment, or business development
Investors and ecosystem operators tracking applied deep tech in the Bay Area
Founders exploring Korea or Asia for customers, manufacturing, deployment, or expansion
This is not designed as a beginner-level AI overview or general mixer.
Speakers
Founder & Managing Partner, Fortitude Ventures
Sungjoon is an early-stage investor focused on AI, robotics, and autonomy. An electrical engineer by training, he previously worked on Samsung's mobile processors and has invested across Formation8, Amasia, D20 Capital, and now Fortitude Ventures.
Investor, Samsung Next Ventures
Diane is an investor at Samsung Next Ventures, investing across emerging technology. She brings a corporate venture perspective on evaluating frontier technology companies and how startups can engage with global technology and industrial ecosystems.
Partner, Antler Korea
Jiho is a serial entrepreneur and investor who has built companies across Seoul and Silicon Valley. He cofounded Soomgo, backed by Y Combinator, and BXB, which was acquired by Binance.
Today, he backs globally ambitious founders at Antler Korea and works with international founders navigating Korea's startup and industrial ecosystem.
Why this room
Antler invests in early-stage technology companies across both San Francisco and Seoul, alongside its broader global network.
This event brings the two ecosystems together on purpose.
The Korea team brings experience working with international founders entering Korea and connections across the country's startup and industrial ecosystem. The San Francisco team brings its deep-tech founder community and Bay Area network.
Together with investors from Fortitude Ventures and Samsung Next, the goal is to have a practical conversation about what opportunities actually exist for physical AI founders looking toward Korea and Asia.
Every RSVP is reviewed because the value of the evening depends on who else is in the room.
Schedule
5:00 PM — Doors open, food, drinks & networking
5:15 PM — Welcome & Korea ecosystem introduction
5:30 PM — Panel discussion
6:20 PM — Audience Q&A
6:30 PM — Open networking
7:30 PM — Official close
Event Details
Date: Monday, September 21, 2026
Time: 5:00 PM – 7:30 PM PDT
Location: Antler San Francisco, 144 Townsend St
Format: Panel discussion, food, drinks & networking
Language: English
Food and drinks will be provided.
About Antler
Antler is a global venture capital firm that helps exceptional founders build Further, Faster.
Operating across 27 locations worldwide, Antler has supported and invested in more than 1,800 startups and was ranked the world's most active early-stage investor by PitchBook in both 2024 and 2025.
Its global portfolio includes Airalo, Lovable, PixVerse, Wrtn, Sona, Salmon, Reebelo, Reditus Space, Imitation Machines, Standard Electron, and Type I Compute, spanning AI, enterprise software, robotics, semiconductors, aerospace, and other frontier technologies.
Antler supports founders from initial investment through customer introductions, market validation, global expansion, and follow-on funding.