Backed by a record chip boom and a state-run “AI Squid Game” to build sovereign models, South Korea is also nurturing a new generation of AI startups—like wrtn, an interactive storytelling platform now eyeing a U.S. launch.
Founded in 2021 as a chatbot aggregator, the South Korean startup is now on track to surpass $100 million in annual recurring revenue this year, as AI-generated entertainment gets a foothold among consumers.
Wrtn—better known by its brand names Crack (in Korea) and Kyarapu (in Japan)—offers an AI-powered interactive storytelling platform, where users can set up AI-generated narratives and shape plots in real time. Dong-jae Lee, wrtn’s chief product officer, uses the analogy of a dungeon master for a tabletop RPG: the AI, like the dungeon master, constructs a narrative in response to what users do.
“Experience-wise, it feels like there’s a writer designated for you.” Lee explains. “As a character, you make your own choices inside a pre-made universe, and based off your choices, the ‘ghostwriter’ writes it on the spot, just for you. Think of it as somewhere in between consuming a story and playing a game.”
wrtn now has over five million monthly active users across Korea and Japan. The platform has plans to enter the U.S. market by mid-2026, and is considering an IPO by 2028.
South Korea is emerging as one of the few countries carving out its own niche in the global AI sector, a landscape still dominated by the U.S. and China. The country’s strength in AI goes beyond culture. South Korea’s semiconductor exports hit a record $173.4 billion in 2025, driven by demand for high-bandwidth memory used in AI processors. The government is also backing what media dubbed the “AI Squid Game,” an elimination-style competition to develop a sovereign AI foundation model. Competition is fierce, with tech giants like Kakao and Naver opting out of the contest.
The loneliness epidemic
Martell Hardenberg, a partner at Antler and a backer of wrtn, points instead to Korea’s tech talent and its industrial base as a reason for the country’s strength in AI. He also highlights a demographic driver: the country’s falling birthrate and aging population, which is pushing companies to figure out how to automate more tasks.
Hardenberg says he was drawn to AI and wrtn partly because of another, darker social phenomenon: rising social isolation and a growing desire for companionship. “There’s a bit of a loneliness epidemic, right?” he notes. “How can AI help with that?”
A Harvard Business Review analysis identified therapy and companionship as the top reasons people use generative AI tools, ahead of productivity. (AI companion apps have also drawn public and regulatory scrutiny in both the U.S. and China, with the latter now considering rules that would require human operators to step in during extreme circumstances.)
Still, Hardenberg expects Asia—and Korea in particular—to be a hotbed for AI entertainment and digital companionship. “We believe a generational company will come out of Asia, because it has that heritage of gaming, social networks, and creating content.”
