DATABRAIN is a startup that developed 'MA-HA,' a performance marketing AI SaaS solution. The company was founded in January 2024 by CEO Moon Sangyun (28).
Moon gained extensive practical experience working at marketing companies and startups. There, he keenly felt the difficulties faced by many small and medium enterprises and small business owners who wanted to market their products but were unable to due to structural barriers.
"I decided to start a business to solve this problem. We operate an advertising automation service based on SaaS and focus on lowering the barriers to digital marketing for small and medium enterprises and small business owners."
MA-HA is an AI-based marketing automation SaaS solution. Existing advertising solutions often have separate or complex functions for setting up and analyzing advertising campaigns. MA-HA is structured so that AI automatically manages the entire marketing process, including advertising settings, performance analysis, budget adjustments, and content recommendations.
For example, when a user registers their brand or product and sets a budget, MA-HA automatically sets the most efficient advertising media and budget distribution ratio based on past data and current market conditions.
"Advertising results can also be visualized and checked in real time. The solution features an AI-powered function that automatically recommends or produces essential advertising materials (text, images, videos, etc.). MA-HA is an innovative marketing solution that automatically performs A/B testing, considered the most important task for marketers. It was developed in response to 'the difficulty that startups and small business owners face when running ads themselves,' so the complexity of marketing was solved by developing technology centered on user convenience from the ground up."
The solution has been integrated with major advertising media, including Google, Facebook, Instagram, and NAVER, and has proven effective in improving customer performance through beta services.
Moon said, "Our competitive advantage lies in AI's automatic budget distribution algorithm." "We collected behavioral data from performance marketers and used it to train the AI model, enabling efficient budget management as if a human were making the decisions. For small and medium enterprises with limited advertising budgets, the key question is, 'Where and how much should we spend our money to get the best results?' Our technology has high technical value because it automatically makes these decisions."
Another strength is the convenience of integrated functions. Existing solutions require users to log in and manage each advertising medium separately. MA-HA is designed to solve this problem by providing an integrated platform.
"It is also possible to automate the creation of advertising materials. AI understands the type of business of our customers—such as brands and services—and recommends appropriate advertising copy and banners. This allows even non-experts to easily create 'advertisements that sell well'. This competitive advantage goes beyond having excellent technology and provides high customer satisfaction as a 'tool that actually improves performance'. Above all, we have thoroughly designed MA-HA with the user in mind. We focus on solving customer problems, not just showing off AI technology."
DATABRAIN conducted marketing by meeting with customers who needed solutions through startups, small business owner communities, government support program networking, and other methods. Moon said, "Through this process, we confirmed that there was a clear need for the 'MA-HA' solution, especially among customers with small advertising budgets and no internal marketers." He added, "Based on word of mouth and actual use cases, we are seeing an increase in spontaneous traffic."
"After verifying the results through the beta service, we are forming a collaborative structure with advertising agencies, generative AI startups, and content production companies to provide our solutions to their customers. Starting in the second half of this year, we plan to register with global SaaS distribution channels, such as Product Hunt, to secure overseas customers."
DATABRAIN currently consists of seven members. A 10-year developer from a global SaaS-listed company is managing technology development as the internal CTO.
"We have two product managers who plan and design solutions from the customer's perspective, two UI/UX designers, and two professional performance marketers who assist our customers with marketing. All of our members have experience working at startups, and our strength lies in our teamwork based on our ability to quickly plan products and apply them to the market."
Regarding future plans, Moon stated, "We aim to advance the technology of our service 'MA-HA,' which will be developed by 2025, and increase both its technical capabilities and convenience so that customers can use it more easily."
Founded: January 2024
Main business: development of 'MA-HA,' a performance marketing AI SaaS solution; lectures and consulting in marketing
Achievements: Monthly sales exceeded 50 million won within three months of launching the test version; Enrolled in the 14th K-Unicorn Academy in 2024 and graduated in the top 30%; Selected as a finalist for the 2025 Re-Challenge Success Package; Selected as an excellent company (top 10%) for the AI Data Voucher Support Project; Signed an industry-academia cooperation agreement with Sungkyunkwan University for talent cultivation and software development; Received the Korea Internet & Security Agency President's Award; Received the Goyang Industry Promotion Agency Chairperson's Award; Won the top prize at Sookmyung Women's University Software Lab Demo Day; Selected as one of ten excellent companies at Goyang IR Day
reporter jinho lee
jinho2323@hankyung.com
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