After $360 Million Radish Exit, Seung-yoon Lee Makes Third Bet on AI Data With Toss

Lee’s New AI Venture, Poseidon

Toss Becomes First AI Partner for Its 30 Million Users

Numo Data-Collection Mini App to Be Integrated

‘We Will Lead the Physical AI Era’

Seung-yoon Lee, who sold web novel platform Radish to Kakao for about $360 million and later built blockchain project DATA, formerly Story, to a valuation of more than $2 billion, is now making a push into the AI training-data market. It is the third major bet by the serial entrepreneur, who has raised funding four times from Andreessen Horowitz. His first partner is Toss, the fintech super app with 30 million registered users.

Lee is one of the most closely watched young founders in the startup industry in South Korea and abroad. While studying at the University of Oxford, he became the first Asian president of the Oxford Union. He later moved from media entrepreneurship into startups and became widely known after the 2021 Radish sale. This year, the World Economic Forum named him a 2026 Young Global Leader alongside Samsung Electronics Chairman Jay Y. Lee and Hyundai Motor Group Executive Chair Euisun Chung. More recently, he appeared as a featured speaker with Dunamu Chairman Song Chi-hyung at a cryptocurrency event hosted by U.S. President Donald Trump.

Testing a Data Economy With 30 Million Toss Users

Lee merged DATA with Kled, a data company backed by investors including the founders of LVMH and Waymo, and handed management of the foundation to a new executive team led by Chief Executive Officer Andrea Muttoni. Kled founder Avi Patel will serve as chief data officer. Lee will remain a strategic adviser to DATA while moving to Poseidon as chief strategy officer and chairman, allowing him to lead the new business directly.

The goal is to build a model that goes beyond Scale AI, the data-labeling company Meta acquired for 40 trillion won ($28.9 billion). As his first move in the new role, Lee struck a partnership with Viva Republica, the operator of Toss, on a user-participation AI data business. It is Toss’s first collaboration in Web3 and AI data.

At the center of the partnership is a plan to build a participatory data economy that returns the value of data to users rather than concentrating it in large platforms. The companies aim to create a structure in which users provide data needed for AI training and receive transparent compensation in return. They will introduce Poseidon’s data-contribution app, Numo, as a mini app inside Toss.

Data collection will be based strictly on prior consent. The service will run on a task-to-earn model in which users choose assignments and complete them directly. Tasks may include recording a Gyeongsang dialect sample, filming a video of washing dishes with both hands or uploading a photo of road damage. Users will receive preset rewards after the quality of the data is verified.

Poseidon will use the DATA network to track the origin of each dataset and the value of each contribution without tampering. Toss will handle user verification and settlements, supporting a structure in which participants are compensated transparently for the value of the data they provide. Toss also plans to review links over time with next-generation Web3 infrastructure such as crypto wallets, stablecoins and payment rails, depending on the regulatory environment.

First-Person Behavioral Data Is Central to Physical AI

Poseidon is targeting physical AI fields such as robotics and autonomous driving. Unlike generative AI, which centers on text and images, physical AI must move and make decisions in real-world environments. That makes first-person behavioral data, including records of how people walk, pick up objects and drive, a core resource. It is a category that cannot be created with synthetic data or collected from the internet without permission. Nvidia Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang has said that “the ChatGPT moment for robots has arrived” and that data is the biggest bottleneck in building physical AI.

Poseidon and Toss see South Korea as an ideal test bed for gathering that kind of data. The country’s advanced urban infrastructure and high smartphone penetration should allow first-person daily-life data to be collected quickly and at scale. South Korea also has a strong manufacturing and robotics base led by companies such as Hyundai, Samsung and LG, creating room for synergies.

The two companies plan to expand the model globally after validating it in South Korea. Chang-hoon Seo, a Toss executive in charge of new businesses, said demand for high-quality data is rising quickly as the AI industry grows. Toss plans to create an environment in which users can participate in the data economy more easily and naturally, while broadening structures that ensure transparent compensation for the value they contribute.

Former NASA and Google Figures Join Poseidon

Poseidon’s team includes prominent industry and academic figures. Sandeep Chinchali, a former NASA researcher and professor at the University of Texas at Austin, has joined as co-founder and chief scientific officer to lead technology development. David Lee, a former head of Google’s international business, will serve as president. The company has also raised a $15 million seed round from Andreessen Horowitz.

The business is already gaining traction. Beyond Toss, Poseidon has been adding to its ecosystem with projects including Oto, a voice-data app that gained attention on Hugging Face, and Miso, a robotics data partner. Based on that network, it is already supplying refined datasets to major frontier AI labs globally and generating revenue.

Lee said a model in which big tech companies take data without permission and use it for training is unsustainable because it runs into repeated limits, including copyright litigation. His goal, he added, is to build infrastructure where lawful data can be traded and compensated and to secure a leading position in the physical AI era.