Martial Arts, Trade Industry & Startup Collaboration Drives Export Innovation

[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Yoon-joo] The Korea International Trade Association (KITA) announced that it will lead export innovation through open innovation between the trade industry and startups.

On the 9th, KITA signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Wayne Hills Ventures, a startup that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to automatically convert documents into digital video content through its Text to Video (TTV) service, at COEX in Samseong-dong, and decided to support the production of online promotional videos for the trade industry.

Wayne Hills Ventures was selected at the 'KITA x Startup Open Innovation' event held in July to commemorate KITA's 74th anniversary, and detailed discussions have been ongoing since then. The TTV service is a video production solution that analyzes input text and automatically retrieves optimized videos and subtitles, significantly reducing the time and cost compared to traditional video production processes. KITA plans to provide product and service promotional video production services to member companies and export businesses in the future.

Meetings, a startup that provides overseas consumers' product usage feedback in the form of video chats, recently signed contracts with 10 export companies arranged by KITA. Meetings leverages a database (DB) of approximately 500,000 overseas consumers to deliver overseas market responses to new products and technologies of Korean companies through video footage.

Allgnize, which developed a solution that analyzes complex documents and automatically responds to customer inquiries, is providing answers regarding the use of KITA's startup voucher and startup branch programs. HM International, a director company of KITA, recently signed a contract with Allgnize to provide Q&A services to consumers in four overseas countries.

Additionally, KITA has signed a contract with Law & Good, a B2B legal advisory service platform, to offer free and discounted services to member companies. KITA's subsidiary, Korea Trade Network (KTNET), is currently in discussions to sign a contract with C-Vantage, a startup specializing in cargo location tracking services.

Startups selected through the Trade Center and COEX testbed project conducted by KITA last year have successfully completed proof of concept (PoC) and are being applied in actual business sites. The main players include Oyster Able, a smart IoT-based recycling bin; Maxst, an indoor augmented reality (AR) navigation map solution; and Interbreed, a smart media video advertising solution. KITA's testbed project has expanded overseas to countries such as the United States, Indonesia, Spain, and Luxembourg, with 18 PoCs and 36 preliminary meetings currently underway.

Lee Dong-gi, Head of KITA's Innovation Growth Division, stated, "We plan to continuously carry out open innovation projects to enable export innovation in the trade industry through collaboration with startups," adding, "This will serve as a foundation for the joint overseas expansion of export SMEs and startups."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.