Manufacturing infrastructure startup F4GE raises first institutional funding round led by Naver D2SF

The manufacturing infrastructure startup F4GE announced it has secured its first institutional funding round, led by Naver’s D2SF. The round also included participation from Kinet Investment Partners, Saje Partners, D-Camp, and 500 Global. The funding amount was not disclosed.

F4GE, founded in January of this year, connects South Korea’s fragmented foundry, forging, machining, and mold-making factories into a unified manufacturing network. The company targets global defense and advanced hardware firms by addressing supply shortages through Korean manufacturing capacity. Naver D2SF highlighted F4GE’s role in bridging Korean factories with global buyers who require compliance, documentation, and traceability standards.

The global defense industry faces rising procurement demand, yet major contractors often lack the production infrastructure to meet it. South Korea hosts over 60,000 root-industry factories with high quality and productivity, but many struggle to meet international compliance and documentation requirements, limiting market access. F4GE deploys proprietary software into existing factories to collect real-time data on equipment, processes, inspections, and workflows. The system standardizes diverse equipment data formats, digitizes skilled workers’ know-how into databases, and automates factory assignments, process standardization, logistics, customs, and paperwork. This enables compliance with Chain of Custody certification required by entities such as the U.S. Department of Defense.

F4GE is currently expanding partnerships with factories in the southeastern industrial hubs of Sacheon, Changwon, and Busan. Internationally, it is building a network of buyers in North America and Europe across defense, aerospace, shipbuilding, and robotics sectors. CEO Kwon Hyuk-hyun, a former naval special warfare officer and defense startup founder with experience in U.S.-based AI and manufacturing investments, plans to hire more manufacturing engineers and AI talent and scale partnerships following the funding.

Naver D2SF Center Director Yang Sang-hwan said the defense and manufacturing sectors are undergoing simultaneous supply chain restructuring and technological advancement, creating ongoing opportunities. He added that F4GE is building a structure to connect Korea’s manufacturing strengths with global demand, and that Naver D2SF will continue to identify startups addressing structural challenges in these industries through technologies like defense-specific AI models, defense and manufacturing LLMs, and physical AI.

Reported by Platum.