A Platform
Connecting 300 Million Users,
Leading the Age of AI Communication
Dong-shin Kim, CEO of Sendbird

Sendbird is recognized by Silicon Valley as a leading global AI startup and is known as Korea’s first B2B unicorn. Could you give us a brief introduction to the company?

Sendbird is a global communication platform built on AI agents, offering a wide range of enterprise communication solutions including in-app chat, voice and video calls, and AI chatbots delivered in a Software as a Service (SaaS) model. As of 2025, more than 300 million people engage in conversations through the Sendbird platform each month, with approximately 7 billion messages processed monthly. The company’s market indicators are also promising. To date, Sendbird has raised about KRW 300 billion in cumulative funding. Its solutions are used by major Korean companies such as Lotte Home Shopping, Coupang Play, and Krafton, as well as global leaders like Rakuten, PayPal, Maya, DoorDash, and Yahoo.
Sendbird now aims to evolve into a next-generation AI-based customer communication platform. The goal is to seamlessly integrate AI across the customer journey from acquisition to retention thereby enhancing the overall customer experience.

Let us start at the beginning. What was the startup environment like when Sendbird was founded?

The origins of Sendbird were modest. Four co-founders gathered in a 30-square-meter office behind Samsung Tower in Gangnam. I remember those early days vividly sharing desks, sleeping in the office in sleeping bags to save commuting time (my commute was an hour and a half), and working in a space barely big enough to stretch our legs.
Our main strategy at the time was to participate in startup competitions. The prize money, office space, and service credits helped us sustain operations in those early days.

Global expansion is a dream for many startups. How did you overcome the challenges to break into the U.S. market in 2015?

While Korea’s startup environment has improved significantly, it still presented limitations when targeting international markets. We felt it was more strategic to go directly to the United States and leverage the strength of the local ecosystem. In 2016, we were selected for the Winter Batch of Y Combinator (YC), the world-renowned accelerator that nurtured companies like Airbnb, Twitch, and Dropbox. Each batch receives 10,000–20,000 applications, but only around 100 are accepted into the three-month program. Even though our pitch at YC’s demo day did not immediately generate strong interest, we did not give up. Eventually, we secured a seed investment of approximately KRW 2 billion, which became the foundation for our next phase of growth.
Later that year, we were named a finalist at Slush, one of the world’s top four startup conferences held in Helsinki. That boosted our global brand recognition and led to a successful Series A round in 2017, attracting about KRW 20 billion in funding from top-tier Silicon Valley investors, including Shasta Ventures and August Capital.

In just five years, Sendbird achieved unicorn status in 2021. What was the investment and branding strategy that made this possible?

Our participation in Y Combinator opened the door to the global stage. Some investment pitches were disappointing, while others laid the groundwork for growth. We quickly learned that the U.S. investment culture differs greatly from Korea’s. In Korea, there is more bureaucracy. In the United States, deals are often concluded over casual conversations sometimes even over beer.
Our Series B round in 2019 raised around KRW 130 billion. Unlike our earlier experiences, top-tier firms such as Iconiq Capital and Tiger Global Management reached out to us proactively. Some of them even proposed concrete collaboration scenarios, signaling deep confidence in our growth potential and strategic direction. For us, it was a completely new experience investors pitching to us, not the other way around.
In 2021, our Series C funding again raised approximately KRW 130 billion, pushing our valuation beyond KRW 1 trillion and formally securing unicorn status. To meet growing customer demand, we launched global sales kickoff events and ran brand campaigns, including digital billboards in New York’s Times Square. These efforts significantly elevated our visibility in the global B2B SaaS market.

It has now been more than ten years since Sendbird established its presence in Silicon Valley. From your perspective, what explains the current prominence of AI in the region?

As a Y Combinator graduate and the CEO of Sendbird, I had the opportunity to attend the 2024 World Economic Forum (WEF) as the leader of a unicorn company. There, I engaged with global leaders, including Sam Altman of OpenAI, heads of state, and CEOs of major corporations all of whom were directly involved in the development and deployment of AI. That experience confirmed my belief: AI is no longer an optional tool but a core strategic capability.
The reasons for AI’s rapid rise are clear. First, speed. Some AI startups are achieving multi-billion-won revenues within just a year or two of incorporation. The time required to reach trillion-won revenue milestones is shrinking. Second, business performance. AI is not just about potential or hype it is now delivering measurable results. The technology is being validated through real-world commercial success. Third, market dominance. Tech giants are fiercely competing to acquire AI startups. Mergers, acquisitions, and partnership announcements worth billions are now occurring weekly.

What are the key challenges companies face when attempting to adopt AI?

AI adoption is no longer speculative it is already part of the present. Yet many organizations hesitate. The obstacle is rarely the technology itself; it is the transformation required within the organization. According to actual statistics, over half of large-scale AI projects are terminated before commercialization. Only 30% survive the first year, and just 17% remain after three years. In other words, only one in six AI projects leads to tangible success.
Organizations that struggle with AI adoption typically face common barriers: a lack of executive commitment, unclear accountability structures, and cultural resistance to change.

What distinguishes those companies that have successfully adopted AI?

They differ in how they execute. Two notable examples are Hanssem and Lotte Home Shopping. Hanssem transitioned repetitive customer service inquiries such as delivery, returns, and cancellations to an AI chatbot. With clear deadlines and responsibilities set by both management and frontline teams, the company succeeded in deploying the solution within just two months. Today, more than half of Hanssem’s service center functions are automated through AI. Lotte Home Shopping collaborated with AI firm Anthropic to integrate AI across customer interactions, product matching, and content management. Rather than building everything from scratch, they chose to partner with a firm that already possessed the necessary expertise and infrastructure. What these companies share are three elements: strong leadership commitment, well-defined goals and accountability, and strategic collaboration with experienced AI partners.

In your view, what role will AI agents play in the digital economy of the future?

We are entering an era in which transactions will occur through AI-to-AI interaction, without direct human involvement. This is referred to as the Agent-to-Agent (A2A) Economy. In this model, every company will deploy AI agents to represent its interests, and broker agents will coordinate among them to deliver optimal results. Individuals, too, will engage with dozens or even hundreds of AI agents daily.

What should business leaders consider when integrating AI into their organizations?

AI agents are rapidly expanding and evolving. Algorithmic trading already accounts for a significant share of stock market activity, and the technology is now capable of processing unstructured data. Generative AI is extending its reach into text, images, and voice.
To ensure successful integration of AI, three elements are essential. First, companies must identify recurring business challenges and specific customer pain points. Second, they need to assess whether these issues can be addressed in ways that drive revenue or reduce costs. Third, the timeframe and available investment resources must be evaluated realistically. At Sendbird, we emphasize a three-phase framework: Build, Test, and Evaluate. This involves developing a pilot or Minimum Viable Product (MVP), gathering user feedback and measuring performance, and assessing results before moving forward. Even if initial efforts are modest, companies can reach their goals within six months to a year.