NAVER Ventures Adds Instinct and Suno to Portfolio

NAVER Ventures, NAVER’s U.S. investment arm, has added Instinct, a developer of personal AI assistants, and music-generation AI company Suno to its portfolio. The two companies provide AI agents that handle tasks for users and music-creation technology, NAVER Ventures said. NAVER is expanding its connections with the global AI ecosystem.

Instinct offers a personal assistant that can carry out requests such as ordering groceries, booking train tickets, or sending flowers to an acquaintance through Apple’s iMessage or WhatsApp, without requiring a separate app. The company is led by Noah Shin, a 23-year-old former AI researcher, and raised $1 billion in a Series C last month.

Suno is a generative AI service that creates songs with vocals and accompaniment from written descriptions of the desired music. It also provides editing and mixing tools. Suno aims to lower the barriers to music creation so people without specialist knowledge can make and refine songs. It was valued at $5.4 billion in June and raised more than $400 million in investment.

NAVER Ventures has invested in Anthropic, voice-generation company ElevenLabs, video-understanding company Twelve Labs, enterprise-agent company Enhance, and customer-service AI company Netomi. It has also invested in AI accelerator chip company Positron AI and data-platform company Vast Data, building a portfolio across AI services and underlying infrastructure.

An industry source said NAVER appeared to be creating a structure that gives global AI companies a basis for entering markets while securing opportunities to collaborate. NAVER is expected to expand its business through cooperation with promising AI companies.

NAVER Ventures, NAVER’s U.S. investment arm, has added Instinct, a developer of personal AI assistants, and music-generation AI company Suno to its portfolio. The two companies provide AI agents that handle tasks for users and music-creation technology, NAVER Ventures said. NAVER is expanding its connections with the global AI ecosystem.

Instinct offers a personal assistant that can carry out requests such as ordering groceries, booking train tickets, or sending flowers to an acquaintance through Apple’s iMessage or WhatsApp, without requiring a separate app. The company is led by Noah Shin, a 23-year-old former AI researcher, and raised $1 billion in a Series C last month.

Suno is a generative AI service that creates songs with vocals and accompaniment from written descriptions of the desired music. It also provides editing and mixing tools. Suno aims to lower the barriers to music creation so people without specialist knowledge can make and refine songs. It was valued at $5.4 billion in June and raised more than $400 million in investment.

NAVER Ventures has invested in Anthropic, voice-generation company ElevenLabs, video-understanding company Twelve Labs, enterprise-agent company Enhance, and customer-service AI company Netomi. It has also invested in AI accelerator chip company Positron AI and data-platform company Vast Data, building a portfolio across AI services and underlying infrastructure.

An industry source said NAVER appeared to be creating a structure that gives global AI companies a basis for entering markets while securing opportunities to collaborate. NAVER is expected to expand its business through cooperation with promising AI companies.