Tech Explained: IDOLL Robotics: Korea’s Emotional AI Frontier & the Rise of the “Forever Companion” at K-Startup Grand Challenge 2025 – KoreaTechDesk in Simple Terms

In a country leading the world in robotics and AI adoption, IDOLL Robotics stands at the edge of a new emotional frontier. Founded by Nasrat Shady, a robotics innovator with over 13 global awards and experience collaborating with Korea’s major tech firms, the company is on a mission to create robots that feel—not just function.

In this exclusive interview, the founder shares how IDOLL Robotics is turning science fiction into a distinctly Korean reality—where companionship and technology blend into something profoundly human—while tracing the company’s growth and transformation through Phase 2 of K-Startup Grand Challenge 2025.

“Before KSGC, we had technology and a clear vision. After KSGC, we have a registered company, government funding secured, a flagship university partnership, and investors actively tracking our next phase of growth.”

IDOLL Robotics Origin: When Smart Devices Stop Feeling Smart

Q1. What motivated you to start this company, and what core problem were you trying to solve?

Korea has one of the highest rates of single-person households in the world, yet I kept noticing the same contradiction everywhere—people surrounded by screens, apps, and AI services, but still feeling unseen and unsupported in a deeply human sense. Everything was becoming smarter, but nothing truly understood or cared about the individual behind the data.

About five years ago, I watched a science-fiction film featuring a companion robot and found myself asking a simple question: why doesn’t this exist in real life yet? I started digging into the available technology and quickly realized the answer: the essential building blocks—large language models, multimodal perception, and real-time motion control—were not mature enough at the time.

Therefore, rather than waiting passively, I decided to prepare for that moment. I pursued a master’s degree in AI robotics, focused my research on robot intelligence, and closely followed the evolution of the underlying technologies. Today, those pieces have finally reached a level where this vision is achievable.

With IDOLL, we are building next-generation companion robots designed to form lasting relationships with people—not as tools, but as companions. We are creating a robot that feels personal, continuous, which can genuinely become your “best friend forever”—and by this I genuinely mean forever.

Korea: The Perfect Testbed for Emotional Robotics for IDOLL

Q2. What opportunity or unmet need did you identify in the Korean market, and what early signals convinced you that your solution could gain real traction here?

Korea stands out as an ideal launch market for IDOLL. Nearly one in three people lives alone, yet most digital “companions” remain confined to screens, offering interaction without presence.

At the same time, Korea ranks second globally in paid ChatGPT users, behind only the U.S. When adjusted for population size, this signals an exceptionally high willingness to adopt and pay for AI-driven experiences.

Combined with Korea’s strong character and IP culture and its rapid adoption of new technologies, a clear gap emerged. People are ready for emotional, character-driven AI, but there is still no affordable, physical robot that can genuinely fill that role in everyday life.

The early signals confirmed this opportunity. After demonstrating IDOLL, multiple Korean founders and executives approached us with a specific question: could their existing mascots or characters be brought to life as robots? This demand directly led to the creation of IDOLL Enterprise. In parallel, our MoU with Pusan National University for the CampusAI initiative validated that institutions in Korea are also prepared to deploy companion robotics at scale.

Together, these responses showed that Korea is not just receptive to the idea of embodied AI companions—it is ready to lead their real-world adoption.

The Missing Piece: What KSGC 2025 Taught About Scaling Emotion

Q3. During KSGC, were there any mentors, partners, or specific insights that significantly influenced your product or strategy?

While the specific mentorship details were not disclosed, IDOLL’s time in KSGC underscored an important realization about emotional robotics: technology alone doesn’t create connection—context does.

The program environment, designed to bridge startups with Korea’s institutional and industry networks, highlighted how emotional AI must adapt to social, cultural, and operational frameworks to achieve real traction.

This became especially relevant in the Korean context, where character culture, education systems, and technology adoption patterns naturally support human–AI interaction in everyday life. For IDOLL, this experience likely reinforced the idea that emotion, to scale meaningfully, must be embedded into environments that already value continuity and trust—universities, creative IP ecosystems, and service sectors.

Rather than a dramatic pivot, KSGC seems to have provided perspective: a reminder that emotion is not a standalone feature but an infrastructure that must be carefully localized to thrive.

From Concept to Company: IDOLL Robotics is Building Korea’s Emotional Robotics Ecosystem

Q4. After joining KSGC, what has been the most meaningful change for your company and what evidence supports this growth?

The most meaningful change after joining the K-Startup Grand Challenge program is that IDOLL evolved from “a cool robotics project” into a fully operational company with a strong Korean ecosystem behind it.

First, we formally incorporated IDOLL Robotics in Busan and began structuring the business around clearly defined verticals such as CampusAI and IDOLL Enterprise, moving beyond a single demonstration robot toward scalable use cases. During this period, we also secured a government grant, with critical support from BCCEI, which strengthened our financial and operational foundation.

On the partnership front, we signed an official MoU with Pusan National University to develop CampusAI for approximately 30,000 students and 1,000 staff, positioning IDOLL as the AI and robotics interface for the campus. In parallel, we expanded our network to include Korean investors, startup support organizations, and corporate partners, which led to a Letter of Intent for a KRW 1 billion investment from Korean investors.

These milestones were the direct result of KSGC and GCCEI placing us in front of the right decision-makers. Before KSGC, we had technology and a clear vision. After KSGC, we have a registered company, government funding secured, a flagship university partnership, and investors actively tracking our next phase of growth.

Beyond Robots: Building a Future of Living AI Companions

Q5. Looking ahead, what is the most important vision or long-term goal your company aims to achieve, and what steps are you taking to move toward it?

Our long-term vision is simple: we want IDOLL to become a genuine companion for millions of people, not a novelty device that ends up forgotten in a drawer. If we succeed, emotional robots will become as normal in daily life as phones or personal computers, but with something current devices lack: warmth, presence, and continuity.

And so, we are moving toward this vision through clear, deliberate steps.

First, we are starting with companion robots and focused enterprise verticals, including universities, mascots, and brand characters. These use cases give us recurring revenue, real users, and dense interaction data, rather than relying on one-time hardware sales. They allow us to refine the product through daily, meaningful use.

Second, we are investing deeply in our own AI and control stack. This includes on-device models for real-time conversation, emotional understanding, and motion control. Our goal is for IDOLL to feel responsive and alive, not like a screen with delayed reactions and mechanical movement.

Third, we are building a long-term hardware roadmap. Today’s desktop-scale IDOLL is only the beginning. Over time, we plan to evolve toward home humanoid robots that can communicate naturally, understand context, and eventually assist with physical tasks.

Every decision we are making now, including MoUs, pilot deployments, government grants, and vertical focus, serves a single objective: establishing IDOLL as the leading emotional robot platform, built in Korea and scaled globally.

The story of IDOLL Robotics reflects a broader truth about innovation in Korea: the next frontier of AI isn’t about data or automation—it’s about empathy. In bringing emotional robotics to life, IDOLL is not just engineering machines; it’s engineering a new relationship between people and technology.

About This Series

This article is part of the “K-Startup Grand Challenge 2025 Interview Series,” featuring 40 global startups from Phase 2 of Korea’s leading accelerator program. The series highlights how international founders are scaling innovation through Korea’s startup ecosystem.

Read more stories from the K-Startup Grand Challenge 2025 Interview Series on KoreaTechDesk.

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