Korea Central News Net

Tag: business

  • KG Inicis launches customizable biometric authentication solution for the shopping mall digital payment service

    KG Inicis, a leading company in South Korea’s electronic payment market, announced on the 18th the launch of a biometric authentication feature for its custom payment solution designed for merchant-specific digital peyment systems.

    The newly introduced biometric authentication feature allows users to authenticate payments with facial and fingerprint recognition instead of a password. This not only improves payment speed and convenience but also enhances the overall security level of the service by implementing a hard-to-hack and unreplicable authentication method.

    This function is embedded in the premium easy payment solution “W Pay – Load My Card” (hereinafter referred to as “My Card”), which was launched in February. It is the first and only domestic solution equipped with both easy card registration and Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology, significantly shortening the card registration process.

    KG Inicis explained that in light of recent data breach incidents across the industry, the company developed this feature to provide a safer payment method using biometric authentication, which is difficult to replicate or steal.

    The biometric authentication rollout is part of the ongoing advancement of “My Card.” KG Inicis stated that the company plans to continue strengthening the security and convenience of its solution. According to the company, merchants that have adopted “My Card” experienced a 34% reduction in card registration time and a 20% increase in same-day card registration rate, reflecting an improvement in usability.

    KG Inicis emphasized that facial and fingerprint recognition are widely adopted and fast authentication methods, which significantly enhance the user experience. The company aims to offer a differentiated payment experience by upgrading the solution to ensure that all customers can make secure and convenient payments in various environments.

    Meanwhile, “W Pay” is a customizable, easy payment solution tailored to merchant needs in terms of design and payment methods. It supports fast and secure payments for over 200 online merchants, with a cumulative user base exceeding 18 million. Merchants who build their easy payment services with “W Pay” can also adopt the premium features of “My Card.”

  • SolidVue and Lumotive sign partnership to co-develop next-generation LiDAR

    From left: Jung-Hoon Chun, Co-CEO of SolidVue; Sam Heidari, CEO of Lumotive; and Jaehyuk Choi, Co-CEO of SolidVue, pose for a photo to commemorate the signing of a joint development agreement for next-generation LiDAR systems | Photo provided by SolidVue

    SolidVue, a leading developer of SPAD sensor ICs, has entered into a strategic partnership with U.S.-based programmable photonics company Lumotive to co-develop next-generation LiDAR systems. The two companies plan to set new standards in the 3D sensing industry by leveraging their respective core technologies.

    At the heart of the collaboration is the integration of SolidVue’s high-performance dTOF SPAD sensor—responsible for light detection—with Lumotive’s Light Control Metasurface (LCM™) beam steering technology, which handles light projection. The goal is to jointly develop a reference design that can become the standard for next-generation LiDAR systems. This integrated approach is expected to enable high-resolution, high-precision, and energy-efficient LiDAR solutions applicable to autonomous driving, industrial automation, and smart devices.

    The partnership reflects the shared vision of both companies to accelerate the adoption of compact, cost-effective, high-performance LiDAR solutions across key markets such as autonomous vehicles, industrial automation, and smart consumer electronics.

    “We aim to expand the potential of LiDAR systems by combining our high-performance SPAD technology with Lumotive’s innovative beam steering technology,” said Jung-Hoon Chun, Co-CEO of SolidVue. “This collaboration is a major milestone toward realizing SolidVue’s vision of delivering high-resolution and highly reliable LiDAR sensor ICs to the global market.”

    “By combining SolidVue’s cutting-edge sensor technology with our LCM™ technology, we’re setting a new benchmark in LiDAR performance and opening doors for next-generation applications,” said Sam Heidari, CEO of Lumotive. “This partnership, where our visions and technologies align, is expected to have a profound impact across multiple industries.”

    SolidVue and Lumotive will continue their collaboration to introduce a new class of LiDAR solutions to the market that offer high performance, scalability, and design flexibility, each building on their respective technological strengths.

    SolidVue is a technology company specializing in the development of advanced LiDAR sensor ICs. It leads in CMOS SPAD (Single Photon Avalanche Diode) technology, which enables high-precision 3D imaging. The company develops compact, energy-efficient LiDAR sensor solutions applicable to autonomous driving, AR/VR, and smart devices, while maintaining cost-efficiency.

  • Flock and AIGEN Sciences sign MOU to collaborate on privacy-preserving AI for drug discovery.

    From left: Sunkyu Kim, Director at AIGEN Sciences; Jaewoo Kang, CEO of AIGEN Sciences; Zehua Cheng, Chief Scientist at Flock; and Dr. Wei Dai | Photo provided by AIGEN Sciences

    Web3-native platform Flock and award-winning AI drug discovery company AIGEN Sciences have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to integrate their technologies. This partnership enables pharmaceutical and medical institutions in Korea to collaboratively train AI models without exposing or transferring sensitive data.

    Under the agreement, Flock’s on-chain federated learning infrastructure will connect with AIGEN Sciences’ large language model (LLM)-based drug development engine. This integration allows hospitals and research institutions to retain data ownership while securely utilizing real-world clinical and research data.

    “This partnership marks a major milestone toward realizing truly decentralized AI in life sciences,” said Jiahao Sun, Co-founder and CEO of Flock. “By combining our blockchain-protected incentive layer with AIGEN Sciences’ validated drug discovery platform, we can derive high-value insights in the bio-health sector while maintaining the highest standards of privacy.”

    Jaewoo Kang, CEO of AIGEN Sciences, stated, “Our mission is to accelerate the journey from idea to clinic. Flock’s privacy-preserving technology opens up access to previously unreachable datasets, enabling new collaborations with hospitals and pharmaceutical companies. We believe this will help bring better medicines to market faster.”

    The technical integration will be jointly led by Zehua Cheng, Chief Scientist at Flock, and Sunkyu Kim, Head of AI Research at AIGEN Sciences. The first proof-of-concept (PoC) is scheduled for Q3 2025, with plans to present the findings at leading AI and healthcare conferences.

    Flock (FLock.io) is a community-driven platform that combines federated learning with blockchain technology to build on-chain decentralized AI models. It enables secure collaboration among data owners, compute providers, and AI engineers without revealing raw data, supporting both privacy protection and universal AI applications.

    AIGEN Sciences is a Seoul-based biotech company accelerating small-molecule and biologics discovery by combining LLMs with multi-omics data. Founded by researchers from Korea University, the company is backed by leading venture capital firms and is building a diversified pipeline to improve patient outcomes.