이 기사는 2022년 02월 22일 07:38 thebell 에 표출된 기사입니다.

Peter Thiel, a billionaire tech mogul, is showing his growing interest in the South Korean market, with Palantir Technologies expanding to the country in addition to ongoing investments through private equity firm Crescendo Equity Partners.

Palantir Technologies, a software company established by PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel and others, created Palantir Technologies Korea LLC earlier this month, according to industry sources on Friday.

Palantir Technologies Korea’s first CEOs are Jeffrey Buckley and Deeptha Mathavan. Buckley worked for EY, Yahoo and Zynga before joining Palantir as chief accounting officer in September 2020. Mathavan worked for global law firm Latham & Watkins and joined Palantir in October 2015 as a legal counsel.

Palantir Technologies was founded in 2003 by Thiel, who is also known for his lucrative investments in startups, along with Alex Karp, Joe Lonsdale, Stephen Cohen and Nathan Gettings. Thiel’s early-stage investments include SpaceX, Facebook, LinkedIn, Yelp and Uber.

The U.S.-based secretive software company’s major clients include CIA, FBI, NSA and other intelligence and defense agencies as well as global companies such as Airbus and BP.

It recently developed Foundry, the operating system for modern enterprises. Foundry leverages an open architecture to inform closed-loop operations — connecting data, analytics, and business teams to a common foundation.

Palantir Technologies has joined forces with Korean companies in recent years. In April 2019, Hyundai Doosan Infracore formed a strategic partnership with the American data analytic firm and developed DI 360, a big data collaboration platform.

Hyundai Heavy Industries Group and Palantir Technologies signed a memorandum of understanding on January 4 to build a big data platform for the group’s core businesses. They also agreed to establish a joint venture to promote the big data platform business.

Thiel has been making investments in South Korea through his PE firm, Crescendo Equity Partners. Crescendo has focused on investing in companies with advanced technology, including Movensys, Seojin System and Dong-Ah Geological Engineering Company. The PE firm closed its third blind-pool fund at 1.1 trillion won ($910 million) in December 2021.

South Korean refiner Hyundai Oilbank also attracted $20 million in investment from Palantir Technologies in December 2021. (Reporting by Gyoung-tae Kim)