Line operator Naver leads seed round of legal-focused AI translation startup

Bering Lab, an AI-powered machine translation startup based in South Korea, has raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding in a round led by Naver D2 Startup Factory, an accelerator by internet giant Naver.

Seoul National University’s Seoul Techno Holdings and strategic angel investors such as Daniel Shin, CEO of payments firm Chai, participated in the round.

Photo credit: Naver

Focused on the legal industry and intellectual property sector, Bering Lab is working on machine translation tools that can generate translations which reflect proper legal concepts and terminology. The company says that its tech has been used for over 48 million documents for training data and editing by licensed attorneys.

The Seoul-headquartered firm said it plans to officially launch its business-to-business services catered to legal and corporate clients in the second half of 2021. Bering Lab is also preparing a cloud service based on its engine for individuals and freelance translators.

The investment is “a clear validation of our vision and the technology that we are building, and will fuel our continued expansion and product development,” said Bering Lab CEO Seong Moon.

Naver D2 Startup Factory backs startups that specialize in technologies such as AI, robotics, autonomous driving, healthcare, and internet of things as well as virtual and augmented reality. The accelerator provides early-stage firms with seed to series A funding, dedicated workspaces, and access to hardware and cloud infrastructure.