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Liner, an AI-powered search engine designed for students and researchers, has secured $29 million (around Rs. 243 crore) in funding from prominent investors, including Samsung Venture, Intervest, and Atinum Investment.
This investment will help the Seoul-based startup grow its business, which focuses on specialized information retrieval, distinguishing it from more general AI tools like OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
Liner’s tool, launched last year, narrows its search to credible sources such as academic papers and government databases. The platform offers access to a wide range of scientific journals and publications, aiming to deliver accurate and valuable information tailored for academic use.
According to founder and CEO Luke Jinu Kim, “It’s a new type of search engine. There’s no junk, only valuable information.” The AI system caters to multiple academic disciplines, including medicine, engineering, humanities, and history.
Liner's primary and most rapidly expanding market is the United States, where it has already garnered 10 million users. Universities such as UC Berkeley, Texas A&M, and the University of
Southern California are key hubs for the service, with the vast majority of Liner’s paying users being in higher education. Approximately two-thirds of these users are based in the US, reflecting the platform’s popularity in American academia.
The AI search engine positions itself as a more reliable and accurate alternative to general-purpose bots like ChatGPT and Perplexity. It uses generative AI technology, similar to that used by ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini, but focuses on improving the quality of information by filtering through credible sources. This approach makes it particularly useful for academic research, where the validity of information is critical.
Liner’s tool enables students to ask complex, specialized questions, such as analyzing key literary devices in Shakespeare’s *Hamlet* or calculating heat loss in engineering problems. By customizing large language models to prioritize credible sources, Liner avoids issues like "hallucinations," a problem that can arise when AI generates false or misleading information.
This targeted approach is a response to the limitations of more generalized AI models, offering an academic solution tailored to those who need accurate, trusted information.
The startup’s origins date back more than a decade when Kim and co-founder Chanmin Woo were university undergraduates. They initially created a browser extension that highlighted relevant search results. The release of ChatGPT in late 2022 prompted them to develop a more disciplined AI chatbot that could address the accuracy challenges faced by broader AI models.
With the Series B funding round, Liner has now raised a total of $33 million (approximately Rs. 277 crore) to date. Investors from this round also include LB Investment, alongside existing backers such as Capstone Partners and SL Investment.
The company plans to use the new funding to expand its global workforce, which currently consists of about 40 people. Liner is actively hiring for new positions in San Francisco as it continues to grow its presence in the US market.
By offering a reliable AI tool that focuses on high-quality, academic sources, Liner is positioning itself as a valuable resource for students and researchers in need of accurate and specialized information, while challenging the broader AI landscape dominated by less precise tools.
