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Carbyn AI CEO Jungkeun Hong, MBA 26, drove more than 10,000 miles visiting roughly 150 manufacturing plants and job sites to gather customer feedback.\u00a0<\/p>\nCarbyn AI CEO Jungkeun Hong, MBA 26, drove more than 10,000 miles visiting roughly 150 manufacturing plants and job sites to gather customer feedback.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Startup Carbyn AI<\/a> Co-founder & CEO Jungkeun Hong, MBA 26<\/p>\n When Jungkeun Hong<\/a> came to the United States to pursue his MBA at UC Berkeley Haas<\/a>, he brought with him a lifelong understanding of manufacturing.\u00a0<\/p>\n A native of South Korea, Hong grew up around his family\u2019s jewelry manufacturing business, where he saw firsthand how manufacturers struggled to find skilled workers and preserve institutional knowledge when experienced employees left the workforce.<\/p>\n During the Korean financial crisis, his uncle left a software engineering career to join the family business, where he helped modernize its operations. The experience planted the idea that technology could solve problems in traditional industries.<\/p>\n Before coming to Berkeley, Hong spent several years working in industrial consulting in Seoul, including at McKinsey. After arriving in the Bay Area, he worked as a machinist in Santa Clara, encountering the modernization challenges that inspired him to found Carbyn AI.<\/p>\n Carbyn AI uses smart glasses and computer vision to train factory technicians<\/p>\n Carbyn helps manufacturers capture, preserve, and transfer decades of hard-earned expertise by giving less-experienced technicians AI-powered guidance on the job. Using multimodal AI\u2014including voice and computer vision\u2014the platform analyzes equipment, references manuals and error codes, and walks workers through complex diagnostics and repairs. Workers can wear smart glasses or use a smartphone to access the platform.<\/p>\n Rather than replacing skilled technicians like master machinists, HVAC techs, and electricians, Carbyn AI is designed to make expertise available whenever and wherever it\u2019s needed. Tasks that once required years of on-the-job training can instead be completed with step-by-step AI guidance, helping manufacturers reduce downtime while preserving knowledge that often disappears when technicians retire, Hong said.<\/p>\n Hong, who brought on UC Berkeley undergraduate students Anna Khulup<\/a>, Sadie Muller,<\/a> Andre Leung,<\/a>\u00a0and Arnav Bhardwaj <\/a>as interns, said Berkeley\u2019s entrepreneurial ecosystem played a critical role in the startup\u2019s early development. <\/p>\n Entrepreneurship courses taught by Associate Professor Omri Even-Tov<\/a> and Frederic Kerrest <\/a>of the professional faculty, along with participation in UC Launch\u2019s<\/a> Fall 2025 cohort, grounded him in customer discovery and other early-stage startup fundamentals.\u00a0<\/p>\n Beyond the classroom, professors connected him with venture capitalists, mentors, product leaders, and investors whose feedback helped shape the company and later supported its fundraising efforts.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/with-David.jpg\")
Hong with David Liu of finalREV<\/a>, a modern manufacturing plant in Berkeley that recently installed a new robot arm.<\/p>\n![\"three](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Screenshot-2026-07-07-at-1.02.10-PM-2.png\")
Hong (middle) chatting with students in the Haas courtyard.<\/p>\n