Business Canvas Secures $2.5M Seed Funding - Korea SaaS

Business Canvas Secures $2.5 Million Seed Funding for AI-Powered Document Management

Business Canvas, a South Korean SaaS company specializing in document management and the creator of Typed, has recently announced the successful completion of a $2.5 million seed funding round. The investment was spearheaded by Mirae Asset Venture Investment, with additional participation from Kakao Ventures and Nextrans Inc.

Accelerating Development and Global Expansion

These newly acquired funds will be strategically allocated to expedite product development and facilitate the global rollout of an open beta program for their innovative, AI-powered document management platform. To support this expansion, Business Canvas established a new office location in Santa Clara, California earlier this year.

Addressing Information Overload in the Modern Workplace

Business Canvas is tackling a prevalent issue faced by professionals who routinely process large volumes of information and generate written outputs or make critical decisions. This includes individuals such as legal professionals, entrepreneurs, researchers, students, and communications specialists like journalists.

The proliferation of information, while offering benefits, often leads to overload. This can significantly impede productivity, as substantial time is consumed processing data rather than creating valuable work.

Typed: Reclaiming Time for Knowledge Workers

Founded in 2020 by Woojin Kim, Brian Shin, Seungmin Lee, Dongjoon Shin, and Clint Yoo, Business Canvas aims to resolve the common challenge of knowledge workers and writers spending disproportionate time on research and file organization, rather than on content creation itself.

According to CEO Woojin Kim, a significant portion – over 30% – of an employee’s work hours can be lost searching for previously saved files that are difficult to locate.

Typed offers a solution through an intelligent network that tracks and organizes files based on user interactions. It consolidates knowledge from diverse websites and applications into a streamlined, user-friendly digital workspace.

Prioritizing User Privacy and Data Security

The platform is designed with a strong emphasis on user privacy. Typed does not access the content of users’ documents, but instead leverages them as machine learning data. User actions are collected as data points and combined with publicly available metadata, all with explicit user permission, as explained by Kim to TechCrunch.

A New Approach to Document Management

“Modern document writing hasn’t seen substantial evolution since the 1980s,” stated Yoo. “Despite unprecedented access to information, we continue to rely on outdated methods for organization and comprehension. Our goal is to empower all writers – from legal experts to students – to concentrate on producing exceptional content, rather than being bogged down by source material management. We’ve achieved this by aligning knowledge management with the natural functions of the human brain.”

Significant User Growth and Beta Program Success

Since the launch of its closed beta test in February 2021, Typed has experienced substantial user growth, with 25,000 files uploaded and a 350% month-over-month increase in active users. Currently, over 10,000 users are registered on the waitlist, though specific active user numbers have not been disclosed.

Availability and Pricing

Typed will be offered under a freemium model and is currently accepting beta registrations through its website.

Early Traction and Market Potential

Initial beta testing revealed strong traction among students, journalists, writers, and lawyers – professions that heavily rely on research and document processing. Access was expanded earlier this month to waitlisted users in over 50 countries, primarily targeting individual consumers (B2C).

Business Canvas is also actively pursuing business-to-business (B2B) opportunities, including a proof-of-concept project with a major South Korean conglomerate, as well as adoption by startups, law firms, consulting companies, venture capital firms, and government institutions.

Industry Recognition and Market Size

Shina Chung, CEO of Kakao Ventures, commented, “While still in its early stages, Typed possesses the potential to revolutionize how we work, both individually and collaboratively. If any company can address our outdated content creation processes, it is them.”

The global market for social software and collaboration SaaS is currently valued at $4.5 billion as of 2021, demonstrating a year-over-year growth rate exceeding 17%, according to Kim.