Original Article: [Money Today] https://www.mt.co.kr/future/2025/08/21/2025082114070933717

The robotics startup, Diden Robotics, announced on the 21st that it has secured a pre-Series A investment of $5 million from Company K Partners and Atnum Investment.

Founded in 2024, Diden Robotics is developing quadruped robots capable of freely navigating metal environments. These robots can autonomously perform inspections, welding, and maintenance tasks on large metal structures such as shipyards, steel bridges, oil and chemical plants, and transmission towers where human access is challenging.

Diden Robotics' core competitive edge lies in its quadruped walking technology. Junny (Joon-Ha) Kim, the CEO, founded the company after obtaining a Ph.D. from KAIST's Hubo Lab. The technology developed in this lab was featured on the cover of 'Science Robotics,' a prestigious academic journal, and achieved a Guinness World Record for terrestrial walking speed.

At the end of last year, they signed a collaboration agreement with HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering for the 'joint development of block internal mobile welding robots,' stepping into commercialization. By the end of next year, their goal is to introduce robots into the shipbuilding industry.

With this investment, Diden Robotics plans to accelerate the development of foot-shaped robots that move on legs and the recruitment of specialized personnel. Junny (Joon-Ha) Kim, the CEO of Diden Robotics, stated, "With this investment, our goal is to create robots capable of operating in industrial settings," and added, "We aim to become a globally recognized robotics company, not just in Korea."