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SmartMind
Techstars '20Seoul, KR · Founded 2018 · 15 employees on LinkedIn · 1 known investors
Find your way into SmartMind
SmartMind builds Qurify, an ontology-based AI platform that lets non-technical staff query enterprise data and pairs domain knowledge with industry-specific AI agents for tax/accounting ERP, retail/commerce, construction, and finance. It also offers an AI-based public administration complaint (civil affairs) management system designed to run in closed government networks without external connections.
Also known as SmartMind AI · SmartMind AI Inc. · SmartMind Inc. · 스마트마인드AI
Investors · 1
How we know: the Techstars portfolio · open dataset · Top 3000 Accelerator Startups (no YC) 2026-08 · Not right? Tell us
Company profile
researched Sep 2026SmartMind AI (스마트마인드AI) is a Seoul-based company building ontology-based artificial intelligence software for enterprises and public administration. Its core product is Qurify, a natural-language data analysis platform that lets users query databases and documents together without writing SQL, combining a TAG+RAG fusion architecture with a two-tier ontology so the same platform can be applied across ERP, retail/commerce, construction and finance data environments. The company frames the problem it addresses as limited in-house SQL/BI skills, siloed structured and unstructured data, delays waiting on IT and data teams for simple queries, and general-purpose chatbots producing answers without verifiable sources.
On top of Qurify, SmartMind offers two families of applications. The first is an AI integrated civil-complaint management system for public administration, which analyzes complaint status, assigns cases to staff via AI, drafts response text automatically, and retrieves similar past complaints and relevant statutes; it is designed to run inside closed government networks with no external connections. The second is a set of industry-specific AI agents layered with domain knowledge: ERP tax and accounting (linking ERP data to tax-law grounds for input VAT deduction decisions and real-time provisional closing), retail and commerce (fusing sales, inventory and settlement databases with market reviews and policy documents for self-service back-office analysis), construction and engineering (structuring supervision know-how, specifications, statutes and case law into a knowledge graph), and finance (integrating credit databases, policy documents and market data for risk diagnosis and performance analysis with verifiable evidence).
Earlier public coverage describes SmartMind Inc. as an applied-AI transformation company offering LIGHTHOUSE, a solution built on its proprietary cloud-based big data AI modeling platform, and later ThanoSQL, described as a relational database that stores, manages and queries large sets of structured and unstructured data without meta tags and allows AI model training in an Excel-like environment. The company's GitHub organization, SmartMind AI. Inc., hosts ThanoSQL-related repositories including technical documentation, a Python SDK, an IPython magic package and a Monaco-based editor.
Founding story
Brandon Sang-soo Lee is identified as founder and CEO of SmartMind, and in later coverage as co-founder and CEO. He has described the company's motivation as removing the technical overhead enterprises face during AI transformation so they can focus resources on their core business.
Business model
SmartMind licenses and deploys software: the Qurify ontology platform plus applications built on it for public-sector complaint handling and industry-specific AI agents. The website describes a staged engagement path from demo to proof of concept to production deployment, with configurations designed around each customer's industry and data environment, and directs prospects to a sales inquiry form. Earlier coverage describes project-based delivery, including a digital transformation testbed built for a corporate client.
Traction
Coverage from January 2021 states SmartMind had provided AI solutions to more than 30 clients across industries within two years of inception and completed a digital transformation testbed for Samchully. Current traction includes the AI integrated civil-complaint management system in full operation at Hongcheon County from May 2026 and a partnership with ERP vendor Douzone Bizon signed in June 2026.
Latest developments
In May 2026, Hongcheon County adopted SmartMind's AI system for civil-complaint processing covering assignment through response drafting, with the AI integrated complaint management system in full operation from that month. In June 2026, SmartMind AI and Douzone Bizon signed a business agreement on ERP-based ontology AI and announced expanded cooperation on ERP-based AX.
▸Full profile — market position, technology, go-to-market, geography, history
Market position
Positions itself as a provider of ontology-based, source-grounded AI that spans private enterprise analytics and public administration workloads, contrasting its approach with general-purpose chatbots that answer without citable evidence and with BI/SQL tooling that requires specialist skills.
Emphasis on ontology-based structuring of enterprise data paired with industry-specific domain knowledge, joint querying of databases and documents from a single natural-language question, answers accompanied by sources and derivation basis for executive and audit review, and the ability to operate inside closed government networks without external connections.
Technology
The Qurify platform combines a TAG+RAG fusion architecture with a two-tier ontology to translate natural-language questions into simultaneous analysis of databases and documents, structuring data into knowledge assets and reasoning over causal relationships to support agentic execution of tasks. Industry ontologies encode domain knowledge such as tax law grounds, specifications, statutes and case law. Deployments can run in closed administrative networks without external connectivity, and answers are intended to be presented with sources and calculation basis. The company previously developed ThanoSQL, described as a relational database supporting querying of large structured and unstructured datasets without meta tags and in-database AI training, with an associated Python SDK, documentation, Helm charts and editor published on GitHub.
Go-to-market
Direct enterprise and public-sector sales supported by demos, proofs of concept and staged production rollouts, complemented by partnerships — notably an ERP-based ontology AI business agreement with Douzone Bizon — and by reference deployments such as Hongcheon County. Historically the company also used showcase events, including a Silicon Valley event co-hosted by 541 Ventures and sponsored by KIC SV, and collaborations with universities.
Enterprises with accumulated structured and unstructured data across ERP, retail and commerce, construction and engineering, and finance, where business users depend on IT or data teams for queries; and public administration bodies such as local governments operating on closed networks. Earlier client work included a large South Korean gas utility.
Geography
Headquartered in South Korea, with Korean-language product and customer materials and public-sector deployment at Hongcheon County. The company has also engaged the U.S. market, holding a product showcase at the Korea Innovation Center Silicon Valley in San Jose, California in January 2023.
History
Public coverage in January 2021 described SmartMind as having served more than 30 clients across industries within two years of inception, working with universities including MIT, KAIST and Hanyang University, and as having been invested in by Techstars in 2020 through the Techstars Korea Accelerator. In that month it announced completion of an applied-AI digital transformation testbed project for Samchully, described as South Korea's largest gas company, with a stated intent to continue into work-process informatization, management system improvement, AI modeling of quick-win projects and first-party data processing capabilities. In December 2022 the company announced a solo showcase in Silicon Valley for ThanoSQL, held January 12, 2023 at the Korea Innovation Center Silicon Valley in San Jose and co-hosted by 541 Ventures. The current product line centers on the Qurify ontology platform, with an AI civil-complaint management system in full operation at Hongcheon County from May 2026 and an ERP-focused ontology AI agreement with Douzone Bizon announced in June 2026.
Compiled by commissioned research from 6 cited public sources — announcements, filings, and press listed under research sources below.
Key figures
latest reportedCompany-reported or press-reported figures, each dated to when it was claimed — not independently audited.
Timeline · 5
launches, deals, and filingsSmartMind AI and Douzone Bizon signed a business agreement covering ERP-based ontology AI; a related item dated 2026-06-08 describes the two companies formalizing cooperation on ERP-based AX.
Hongcheon County adopted SmartMind's AI system for civil-complaint handling, covering intake, AI assignment of staff, automatic drafting of responses and retrieval of similar complaints and statutes; the system runs in a closed administrative network and has been in full operation since May 2026.
SmartMind held a solo showcase introducing its ThanoSQL big data enablement and governance platform at KIC Silicon Valley in San Jose, co-hosted by 541 Ventures and sponsored by KIC SV.
SmartMind announced successful completion of a digital transformation testbed project for Samchully, described as South Korea's largest gas company, using its LIGHTHOUSE applied AI transformation solution, with plans for continued partnership on process informatization, AI modeling and first-party data capabilities.
Press coverage states SmartMind was invested in by Techstars in 2020 through the Techstars Korea Accelerator; no amount disclosed.
Dated company events from announcements, filings, and press; legal rows summarize public dockets and regulator releases.
▸Research sources · 6
primary sources listed
- SmartMindsmartmind.team · web
6 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.
Frequently asked questions
- What does SmartMind do?
- Korean developer of Qurify, an ontology-based AI platform for natural-language analysis of enterprise and public-sector data.
- Who are SmartMind's investors?
- SmartMind's investors include Techstars.
- Where is SmartMind headquartered?
- SmartMind is headquartered in Seoul, KR.