JB Financial Group has set up an artificial intelligence strategic investment fund of about 30 billion won ($20.9 million) to accelerate its groupwide AI transformation.
The group said on the 26th that it had formed the JB New Growth Investment Fund No. 1, with three affiliates — The Jeonbuk Bank, The Kwangju Bank and JB Woori Capital — participating as limited partners. The group's first investment target is CipherData, an AI security company.
JB Financial said it decided to invest in CipherData in view of the growing threat of AI-powered cyberattacks on the financial sector. Securing security capabilities is critical as the group pushes ahead with its AI transformation, it said.
CipherData develops an AI-based detection and response platform, known as AIDR, that uses generative AI to automate alert analysis and incident response at security operations centers. It is led by Chief Executive Kevin Ha, who previously oversaw AI security engineering and privacy incident response at Amazon and Meta. The company is also a member of the Coalition for Secure AI, an AI security consortium whose participants include Google, Microsoft and Amazon.
The fund is part of the groupwide AI transformation strategy that JB Financial Group has been pursuing since this year. It was created to secure technology by investing in promising AI companies and to link those firms to business partnerships with affiliates. The fund will be managed by affiliate JB Investment.
JB Financial plans to work closely with CipherData to assess whether AI-based security monitoring technology can be applied in the financial industry. The group also plans to broaden its investment targets to technology companies in areas such as AI models, applied services and data analytics, and to pursue business cooperation with its affiliates.
"Through this AI fund, we will move quickly on the group's AI transformation together with AI companies that have high growth potential, and build an ecosystem in which technology companies and financial groups grow together," JB Financial Group Chairman Kim Ki-hong said.