Cafe Whale, Korea’s largest unmanned café operator, today announced that it has raised USD 1.6 million in strategic funding led by Hyundai Technology Investment and GS Retail, with participation from Value System and other strategic backers.
The funding will support Cafe Whale’s next phase of growth: building MoonWhale, the company’s AI retail intelligence layer, and advancing its roadmap toward next-generation intelligent retail infrastructure.
Cafe Whale currently operates 700+ stores nationwide in Korea and develops its machine R&D, manufacturing, and core technology capabilities in-house. This vertically integrated foundation gives the company end-to-end control across machine design, deployment, and intelligence integration, creating a strong base for scaling AI-native retail infrastructure.
Hyundai Technology Investment is the technology-focused investment arm of Hyundai Group, one of South Korea’s leading conglomerates. GS Retail is one of Korea’s leading retail operators, with more than 15,000 convenience stores nationwide. Their participation reflects strong institutional confidence in Cafe Whale’s technology roadmap and its long-term vision for AI-enabled retail infrastructure.
Cafe Whale is evolving beyond unmanned cafe operations into a broader AI retail technology company.
As part of this transition, Cafe Whale is building MoonWhale (moonwhale.ai), an AI retail intelligence layer designed to connect customer behavior, machine activity, payment-linked interactions, and retail performance into a continuous learning loop.
MoonWhale is being built to support a broader intelligent retail infrastructure over time, with capabilities spanning:
- AI agents for customer engagement, offers, and conversion optimization
- Real-time retail intelligence across locations
- Digital rewards and AI-driven retention
- Future asset-linked retail experiences and partner ecosystem connectivity
By combining AI intelligence with Cafe Whale’s in-house machine and retail foundation, MoonWhale enables a more adaptive and AI-native retail model one that continuously improves customer conversion, retention, and operational efficiency across physical environments.
Built on a Vertically Integrated Machine and Intelligence Foundation
Cafe Whale’s expansion into intelligent retail infrastructure is built on capabilities the company already controls internally.
Cafe Whale has built a vertically integrated foundation across machine R&D and manufacturing, embedded machine intelligence, network deployment, AI-enabled customer interaction, and real-time operational telemetry.
This integrated approach gives Cafe Whale a unique advantage in building intelligent retail infrastructure at scale, aligning machine hardware, AI intelligence, and customer interaction within a unified platform architecture.
As MoonWhale develops, Cafe Whale’s infrastructure is expected to evolve from unmanned beverage automation into a broader retail intelligence network supporting AI-powered engagement, payment experiences, robotic interaction, and real-time optimization across connected physical environments.
Momentum Backed by Retail Scale and Technology Execution
Cafe Whale’s growth is supported by proven execution across retail expansion, machine innovation, and strategic partnerships, including rapid store growth, technology milestones, and collaboration with major retail and investment partners.
Together, Cafe Whale and MoonWhale represent a new model for high-frequency offline commerce: a vertically integrated company building next-generation intelligent retail infrastructure powered by AI.
About Cafe Whale
Cafe Whale is Korea’s largest unmanned café operator, with more than 700 stores nationwide. The company develops its core technology capabilities in-house, including machine R&D, manufacturing, and intelligent machine systems, and is building MoonWhale, an AI retail intelligence layer for next-generation intelligent retail infrastructure.