AI infrastructure firm Lablup Inc.: “IPO proceeds to fund technology upgrades and overseas expansion”

[The Financial News] “We concluded that reinvesting profits alone would not provide the scale needed to keep pace with growth at the industrialization stage.”
AI infrastructure software company Lablup Inc. plans to use its KOSDAQ listing to upgrade its technology and expand its overseas business.
Shin Jeong-gyu, CEO of Lablup Inc., said at an IPO press briefing held at the Conrad Hotel in Yeouido, Seoul, on the 19th, “Using our KOSDAQ listing as an opportunity, we will step up the expansion of our global business and broaden our scope from GPU-centered infrastructure management to AI models and token operations.” The company plans to allocate about half of the 41.4 billion–48 billion won in IPO proceeds to securing hardware for development and validation, and the rest to expanding in overseas markets.
Founded in 2015, Lablup Inc. began with a platform supporting researchers’ computing workloads. It later expanded into enterprise AI infrastructure software, and a surge in corporate AI investment following the emergence of generative AI in 2022 marked a turning point for its growth. Its flagship platform, Backend.AI, automatically allocates computing resources such as GPUs by user and workload, and manages everything from AI model development and training to service operations.
Its revenue model is based on annual subscription licenses. Additional revenue is generated when customers add GPUs or upgrade to higher-performance equipment. The company says that because it supplies its own software without delivering hardware, increased revenue brings little additional cost burden, and contract renewals enable it to secure recurring revenue. Recurring revenue accounted for 94.7% of revenue last year, while the average net revenue retention rate (NRR) for the most recent two years was 131.9%.
Explaining the rationale for pursuing a listing, Shin said, “As the AI market moves beyond research and technology development and enters the industrialization stage, the scale of capital involved is growing to a degree incomparable with the past,” adding, “We determined that reinvesting profits alone would make it difficult to keep pace with the speed of growth.”
The hardware acquired with the IPO proceeds will be used to validate the platform’s performance and stability. The company plans to recreate real-world disruptions, such as network outages and power cuts, and provide AI inference services outside testing hours to cover operating costs while also validating the profitability of its customers’ businesses.
Overseas, the company aims to launch full-scale operations in the United States early next year, hire local staff, and strengthen its business base in Japan and Southeast Asia. It plans to expand its market reach through “neocloud” providers specializing in supplying AI computing resources and local sales partners with established customer networks. It will also expand its product scope from GPU management to connecting multiple AI models and managing token usage and costs.
Lablup Inc. will offer 2.18 million shares, all newly issued. The indicative IPO price range is 19,000–22,000 won, putting the expected market capitalization at 276.3 billion–320 billion won. The company plans to conduct bookbuilding with institutional investors through today, followed by a public subscription on the 22nd and 23rd, before listing on the KOSDAQ market on November 3. NH Investment & Securities is the lead underwriter.
[email protected] Lee Jeong-hwa Reporter