I Hate Flying Bugs Selected for the Ministry of SMEs and Startups’ “Scale-Up TIPS” Program… “Targeting the Global Education and Knowledge-Work Market”

“Next-Generation Education Platform Based on Intelligent Multi-Agents” R&D Project Final Selection

EdTech company I Hate Flying Bugs (CEO Park Chan-yong) announced that it has been selected for the Ministry of SMEs and Startups’ technology startup support program, “Scale-up TIPS.” Through this selection, the company will begin full-scale development of core technologies for its “next-generation education platform based on intelligent multi-agent technology” over the next three years.

Scale-up TIPS is a program in which the government provides matching R&D funding to companies whose growth potential has been recognized by private investment firms (operating firms). iHateFlyingBugs was selected for this program after its technological capabilities and scalability were recognized following a recommendation from the operating firm, “L&S Venture Capital.”

The core of this R&D effort is to go beyond the limitations of existing “reactive AI” and implement “proactive multi-agent AI,” which identifies learners’ situations in real time and allows the AI to intervene proactively. It is regarded as next-generation educational infrastructure technology that automates repetitive teacher tasks and increases learning success rates.

The company has declared its ambition to leap forward as a “global AI SaaS education company” through this R&D initiative. The company’s strategy is to integrate multi-agent technology into its proprietary full-cycle education platform, EPaaS (Education Platform as a Service), to provide a standardized AI education platform that educational institutions, publishers, and governments worldwide can adopt immediately.

Once this technology is commercialized, core tasks at educational institutions—such as class management, learning management, test generation, feedback, and tutoring—will be automated, leading to expected productivity innovations in the educational field.

CEO Park Chan-yong stated, “Knowledge-based service industries—such as education, healthcare, and law—are highly dependent on highly skilled workers, making them the sectors where digital transformation has been slowest,” adding, “The education sector, in particular, is an area where the pace of change is slow, but it also holds the greatest potential for innovation.”

He continued, “In the global education market alone, the size of the knowledge-work sector that AI can replace or assist amounts to approximately $3 trillion (about 4,000 trillion won).” He expressed his ambition, saying, “Through this Scale-Up TIPS R&D program, we will perfect our ‘Proactive AI’ technology and fully target the massive global AI education knowledge-work market, thereby proving through tangible results that we can capitalize on the unprecedented opportunity that has come to I Hate Flying Bugs.”

Following its selection as a “Pre-Unicorn” by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups in 2024, I Hate Flying Bugs has demonstrated its technological capabilities and growth potential by securing a cumulative investment of 95.6 billion won to date. In 2024, its online tutoring service “Mil-dang PT” recorded sales of 37.6 billion won, continuing to build a stable foundation for growth.

The company has established a three-pillar business portfolio comprising △B2C (Mil-dang PT) △B2G (AIDT educational materials, Seoul Run, School PT) △Global (overseas AI digital textbooks). In particular, within the public education sector, it is expanding its unrivaled position in the digital transformation of education by executing numerous national and local government AI digital education projects.

CEO Park emphasized, “An active education platform where AI takes the initiative, just like a human, is a technology that will fundamentally transform the cost structure and work methods in the education sector,” adding, “Based on the technological capabilities secured through the Scale-Up TIPS program, we will redefine global education technology standards beyond Korea.”