companies

Upstage

South Korean AI startup behind the efficient Solar family of large language models and the widely used Document Parse document-AI API.

Upstage was founded in October 2020 by Sung Kim, a former Naver Clova AI lead and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology professor, together with a team of engineers who had previously placed highly in Kaggle machine learning competitions. The company is based in the Pangyo Techno Valley tech hub outside Seoul. Its flagship Solar model line, first released as a 10.7-billion-parameter model in December 2023, uses a depth-up-scaling technique to punch above its parameter count on benchmarks while staying cheap enough to run on a single GPU; the newer Solar Pro 2 adds a switchable reasoning mode. Upstage also built Document Parse and Document AI, tools that convert messy PDFs, scans, and forms into structured text and tables for feeding into other AI systems. In April 2026 Upstage closed the first tranche of a Series C round led by Sazze Partners at a valuation of roughly 1 trillion won, becoming the first Korean generative AI company to reach unicorn status, with backers including Hyundai Motor, Kia, and several Korean venture funds.

Founded

2020

Headquarters

Yongin, South Korea

Sector

lab