Martial Arts, Supporting Young Entrepreneurs' Innovative Ideas for Overseas Expansion

[Asia Economy Reporter Yoonju Hwang] The Korea International Trade Association, in collaboration with the Industry-Academic Cooperation Foundation and the University Industry Technology Support Group, held the '2020 Startup Storytelling Competition' on the 14th at the Trade Tower in Samseong-dong.

This competition was organized to discover and nurture young entrepreneurs who can captivate investors, with 20 startup teams of university and graduate students aiming for global market entry participating.

Among the 10 teams that advanced to the finals, the grand prize was awarded to the 'DEEP't' team from Ewha Womans University. The DEEP't team presented an automatic deepfake detection system designed to prevent malicious use of deepfake technology in fake news and crimes. Their system attracted attention by demonstrating detection speeds twice as fast as competing services and a detection success rate close to 100%. They plan to expand their technology based on automatic deepfake video detection know-how to biometric authentication and voice deepfake detection technologies in the future.

The gold and silver prizes were awarded to the 'Ojo' (wildfire prevention drone) team from Dankook University and the 'DroneArt' (ultralight fuel cell) team from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), respectively. The Ojo team introduced a disaster prevention system featuring an AI wildfire video system mounted on an automatically charging drone capable of flying 22 hours a day, while the DroneArt team showcased an ultralight silicon nano thin-film electrolyte solid oxide fuel cell aimed at reducing weight and cost for fuel cell drones.

The three teams winning the grand prize, gold, and silver will receive prize money along with support for investor relations (IR) consulting and non-face-to-face online IR. Additionally, all 10 teams that reached the finals, including these three, will be provided with startup and accelerating education from KAIST. Furthermore, teams that have successfully produced actual products capable of mass production and are willing to export and sell overseas will be selected for support from the Trade Association, including online overseas marketing services and overseas buyer matching.

Kim Hyun-chul, head of the Global Marketing Division at the Trade Association, stated, "We will actively support the winning teams’ businesses and products to lead to actual investment and successful overseas expansion by utilizing the association’s overseas network and the online B2B business platform TradeKorea."

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