Waddle, the Seoul start-up teaching a shopping assistant to read intent

Most shopping assistants wait to be asked. Waddle’s, called Gentoo (젠투 in Korean), is built to notice. When a visitor browses an online store, a floating button appears; the agent then talks the shopper through the choice, the way a clerk might, tries to detect purchase intent, and recommends products, according to Korean press accounts of the company. The aim is a higher conversion rate for the retailer. Gentoo is sold to stores, not to shoppers, as a multi-agent B2B software service.

The company is led by Park Ji-hyuk, chief executive, and Cho Yong-won, chief strategy officer. VentureSquare reports that both studied at the Korea Academy of Science and KAIST, and that they have worked together, academically and as entrepreneurs, for more than ten years. Waddle began as a student company. The Digital Times reported in April 2020 that Park had taken leave from KAIST’s School of Electrical Engineering and set aside his student status to found it the previous April, with seven fellow students from the university.

Money and a first customer

In April 2024, Waddle raised a pre-Series A round of about KRW 2bn from Kakao Ventures, Bon Angels Venture Partners and FastVentures, per Byline Network and VentureSquare. KoreaTechDesk, writing in August 2025, puts total funding at about KRW 2.5bn (roughly US$1.9m) and names Kakao Ventures and Bon Angels. One figure is a single round and the other a running total, and the sources do not itemise the difference.

Six months after the round, in October 2024, Waddle signed an enterprise contract with OpenAI. Korean outlets describe it as the first such agreement for a Korean start-up. Byline says the deal gives Waddle a base for using OpenAI’s technology at scale.

Recognition

In May 2025, Forbes Asia put Park and Cho on its 30 Under 30 list in the AI category. VentureSquare notes that Waddle was among Forbes Asia’s 100 To Watch in e-commerce and retail in 2024, and that Park had appeared on Forbes Korea’s 30 Under 30 in 2023. Asked about the selection, Cho said, in Byline’s Korean report, that the team intends to grow quickly into one that competes in global markets beyond Asia.

San Francisco

The larger test came that August. At the OpenAI GPT-5 Hackathon in San Francisco, co-hosted by OpenAI and Cerebral Valley, Waddle placed first among 94 teams, according to KoreaTechDesk. It says Waddle was the only Korean entrant. The prize was US$50,000 in OpenAI credits, about KRW 67m, and an invitation to OpenAI’s DevDay in October 2025. Judges came from Sequoia Capital, Conviction and OpenAI.

The four-person team built its prototype in 24 hours on GPT-5. It creates digital clones of an online store’s visitors, studies their buying patterns, and simulates sales strategies before a campaign goes live. Park told KoreaTechDesk the team’s task was “Turning an idea into a high-quality product within a limited timeframe.” He added: “We will work with OpenAI to bring Gentoo to global e-commerce platforms and improve the shopping experience.” KoreaTechDesk also reports that Waddle is exploring distribution of Gentoo as a third-party app on platforms such as Shopify.

What is not known

The sources name no customers beyond OpenAI as a counterparty, and give no revenue. Spellings vary: the company appears as Waddle, and once as Wadle; the product as Gentoo in English-language reports and 젠투 in Korean ones,. Cho’s title is given as chief strategy officer in the body of most reports, though one headline reads security. Whether the hackathon prototype becomes part of Gentoo, or a separate product, is not stated.