Konolabs (CEO YJ Min), developer of Kono, an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven personal assistant scheduler, earned $100K investment from 500 Startups, a startup accelerator based in Silicon Valley. Konolabs was also invited to 500 Startups’ Batch-13 program, which provides startups with four months of mentoring and networking opportunities at the 500 Startups’ office in Mountain View, California.

The company has been developing Kono as its flagship product. When users create a new schedule on the scheduler app and provide details of what to do with whom for that particular appointment, according to official Konolabs website, Kono suggests “three best locations at the best available time based on attendee’s preferences, locations, traffic, and availability.” Other users of the same app can also be easily invited to the schedule one set up. Additional features include informing users of the best time to leave for a scheduled appointment based on their behavioral patterns and traffic condition.

Established in November of last year, Konolabs developed into a startup deserving close attention in a short period of time. The driving force behind this fast paced growth are the veterans of the South Korean IT industry. CEO and founder YJ Min was a former Director of Daum Next Incubation Studio, and CTO and co-founder Martin Song has led developing teams at Daum, NHN, Neowiz, and SK Telecom. Another co-founder Jung-hee Ryu is an ex-CEO of Olaworks, a company specializing in face recognition technology acquired by Intel in 2012.

The application has not been officially released on the market yet. Kono is currently undergoing closed beta testing for both iOS and Android platforms. A limited number of users are being recruited for the early experience with the app.

source : Konolabs Earns $100K Investment from 500 Startups and Invitation to Batch-13