Martial Arts, Global Open Innovation Platform 'InnoBranch' Revamped

[Asia Economy Reporter Jin-ho Kim] The Korea International Trade Association (KITA) announced on the 13th that it has revamped the global open innovation platform, 'InnoBranch.'

InnoBranch is a platform launched by KITA in 2019 to promote collaboration between domestic startups and global large corporations, supporting startups' overseas expansion and scale-up based on this cooperation. It was the first in Korea to introduce and provide open innovation meetups, technology verification programs, and multilateral testbed exchange programs.

Currently, it has grown into a global platform used regularly by 12,000 domestic and international startups across 10 innovative industry sectors including Information and Communication Technology (ICT), healthcare, and food tech, as well as 160 global large and medium-sized enterprises, attracting over 200,000 visitors annually.

Especially this year, existing partners such as Amazon, Kyocera, Whirlpool, and Walmart have requested to expand sourcing of domestic startups, and new partnerships with companies like Volvo, Pepsi, and Panasonic Ventures continue to be added, increasing collaboration demand with domestic startups. Unabrands, the largest aggregator (brand acquisition and operation platform) in the Asia-Pacific region, signed a strategic partnership with ClickBrands, a domestic aggregator, through InnoBranch just two months after connecting, and made an investment worth 120 billion KRW.

As trends in the global startup ecosystem feature 'diversification of collaboration' and 'short and bold decision-making,' KITA has revamped InnoBranch accordingly. The revamped InnoBranch includes new features such as ▲self-open innovation creation functions for large corporations and startup support organizations ▲startup collaboration proposal services ▲startup English directory services ▲English content services including news and videos ▲and social networking service (SNS) posting functions.

Jang Seok-min, head of KITA's Digital Innovation Division, stated, “This revamp focused on resolving the lack of contact points with global companies and minimizing open innovation mismatches. Moving forward, we will concentrate resources and capabilities on enhancing connectivity between domestic and international startup ecosystems and introducing programs that can accommodate diversified open innovation demands.”

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