Taekyung Kwon

CEO, EC21 Inc.
,South Korea
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Who Is Taekyung Kwon?

Total Experience40 years
CompanyEC21 Inc.
CountrySouth Korea

Taekyung Kwon is a distinguished leader and innovator in the field of Artificial Intelligence, particularly renowned for his expertise in Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Large Language Models (LLMs). He is the Co-founder and CEO of Upstage AI, a prominent South Korean AI company focused on developing and democratizing cutting-edge LLM technology for enterprise applications. Before establishing Upstage AI in October 2020, Taekyung made significant contributions to the AI landscape through his roles at leading global tech companies. He served as a Staff Research Scientist at Google Brain, where he worked on advancing AI research. Prior to that, he was a key figure at Naver Clova AI, leading teams in developing AI-powered services. Taekyung holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology), one of South Korea's premier research universities. His vision centers on making AI more accessible, practical, and impactful for businesses and society, often championing open-source initiatives and pushing the boundaries of AI performance.

How Did Taekyung Kwon's Career Path Shape Their Journey?

Taekyung Kwon's work history includes a series of influential roles in various companies. Here is a detailed list of his professional journey:

EC21 Inc. - CEO(2000 to Present)
Korea International Trade Association(KITA) - Manager(1985 to 2000)

What Are Taekyung Kwon's Key Achievements?

Co-founder and CEO of Upstage AI

Successfully co-founded and leads Upstage AI, a company that has rapidly gained recognition for its advanced Large Language Models, including the high-performing open-source model 'Solar'. Upstage AI aims to make LLMs easily adoptable by enterprises.

Development of 'Solar' LLM

Spearheaded the development of 'Solar', an open-source 10.7B parameter LLM by Upstage AI, which achieved top rankings on the Hugging Face Open LLM Leaderboard, outperforming many larger models and demonstrating exceptional efficiency and performance.

Led AI Research at Google Brain and Naver Clova AI

Held significant research and leadership roles at Google Brain and Naver Clova AI, contributing to advancements in machine learning, natural language processing, and AI-driven product development before co-founding Upstage AI.

Pioneering LLM-as-a-Service (LaaS)

Driving the vision for LLM-as-a-Service at Upstage, enabling businesses to integrate powerful AI capabilities without the need for extensive in-house expertise or infrastructure, through platforms like Upstage Console.

Advocate for Open-Source AI

Championing the development and dissemination of open-source AI models to foster innovation and wider adoption of AI technologies, exemplified by the release and success of the Solar LLM.

What's Taekyung Kwon's Educational Background?

No education information available.

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Notable news
Hiring actively
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Company Overview

EC21 Inc.
Total employees150
HeadquartersSeoul
Founded1997

EC21 Inc. is a prominent global B2B e-commerce marketplace headquartered in Seoul, South Korea. Since its establishment in 1997, it has been dedicated to connecting millions of buyers and suppliers from around the world. The platform facilitates international trade by providing comprehensive online services, including product sourcing, supplier discovery, online showrooms, and trade-related information. EC21 aims to empower small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) by offering them a cost-effective way to promote their products and services to a global audience, thereby expanding their market reach and business opportunities.

EC21 Inc. Funding Information
Unknown - Total Funding Raised
$6M - Most recent funding amount
2 - Number of funding rounds
30 Dec, 2000 - Latest funding round
Lead Investors:
Intermax Co. Ltd.
Korea Technology Finance Corporation (KOTEC)

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