NAVER Backs Physical AI Startup Khameleon

The founding team behind Khameleon brings a heavyweight background from some of the biggest names in tech. CEO Donghoon Lee and his team have extensive experience in computer vision, robot control, and teleoperation from their time at Tesla, Apple, Meta, and Bear Robotics. This pre-seed round is Khameleon's first-ever funding since its founding. The investment was co-led by NAVER D2SF and includes participation from Base Ventures, Mashup Ventures, The Ventures, Schmidt Ventures, and other institutional investors from the US and UK. Khameleon is targeting a significant pain point in the North American hotel industry: a severe labor shortage and extremely high staff turnover rates of 70-80% in housekeeping departments. This has forced hotels to significantly increase wages to attract and retain staff, creating strong demand for automation. While some robots exist for hotel delivery and concierge services, the complexity and high-quality standards of housekeeping have been a major barrier to automation. Khameleon aims to solve this with versatile hardware designed to handle everything from restroom cleaning to full room maintenance. The global market for cleaning robots in hotels was valued at over $1 billion in 2025 and is projected to grow significantly. This growth is driven by the push for contactless cleaning solutions and the potential for operational cost reductions of over 20% reported by hotels that have deployed robotic solutions. NAVER's D2SF accelerator focuses on early-stage (Seed to Series A) technology startups, and 62% of the companies in its portfolio received their first institutional investment from them. Their investment areas specifically include AI and robotics. Khameleon has already validated market demand in both the United States and China and has secured a pipeline of potential customers. The company's humanoid robot is designed to operate without reliance on a hotel's network, simplifying deployment.