CJ Group Opens Recruitment for 4th Cohort of Startup Support Open Innovation Platform 'Oventus'

[Asia Economy Reporter Seungjin Lee] CJ Group announced on the 5th that it is recruiting participant companies for the 4th batch of ‘Obenters,’ an open innovation platform that supports the growth of startups and the activation of the industrial ecosystem.

Co-hosted with the Seoul Creative Economy Innovation Center, the 4th batch of ‘Obenters’ is a program that discovers small and medium-sized enterprises, startups, and research institutes with excellent technological capabilities and supports joint commercialization with CJ Freshway, CJ Logistics, CJ ENM, and others. Applications can be submitted via the official Obenters email by the 7th of next month, and detailed information can be found on 'Eventers.'

The contest fields include ▲Food Tech ▲Logistics ▲Entertainment, selecting up to 8 companies and providing each team with 10 million KRW in commercialization support funds. Additionally, at the ‘Demo Day,’ where business performance and plans are presented, one grand prize team recognized for excellence will receive 10 million KRW, and two teams awarded the excellence prize will each receive 5 million KRW.

Furthermore, benefits such as additional points for selection of office space at the Seoul Creative Economy Innovation Center, recommendation points for the Korea Credit Guarantee Fund's 'Start-up Nest,' and pitching opportunities at KDB Industrial Bank's 'Next Round' Special IR Day will be provided. A mentoring group composed of practical experts from various CJ Group affiliates will provide coaching on collaborative projects for about three months. In the future, companies presenting differentiated solutions will build continuous cooperative relationships through joint technology development and investment.

The group affiliates participating in this 4th batch recruitment are attracting attention by selecting themes that can lead the future.

First, CJ Freshway plans to collaborate with partners possessing ‘technology and solutions for optimizing food material distribution logistics center operations’ and ‘support services for restaurant/delivery business store operations.’ CJ Logistics aims for commercialization through ‘big data-utilized mobile robot routing optimization technology’ and ‘discovery of eco-friendly packaging product/technology companies.’ CJ ENM plans to collaborate on ‘brain meta-generation technology discovery’ (content production through viewers’ brainwave recognition and AI analysis while watching dramas, entertainment, and movies, used for hit prediction, etc.) and ‘technology for object replacement within videos using AI.’

Since 2019, CJ has discovered a total of 22 startups through the 1st to 3rd batches of Obenters. Among them, 6 companies have proceeded with follow-up businesses with CJ affiliates (Freshway, ENM, Powercast, Olive Networks), achieving a business linkage rate of 27.3%. Notably, startups increased their corporate value by 143% compared to before participating in Obenters.

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