CJ Selects 12 Promising Startups for 'Obentus' 6th Cohort

CJ Group is taking the lead in expanding the startup ecosystem through its startup accelerating program, O!VentUs.

Companies selected for the 6th Obentus are taking a commemorative photo.
[Photo by CJ]

On the 28th, CJ announced that it has selected 12 companies to participate in the 6th batch of O!VentUs (Open+Venture+Us), an accelerating program that discovers and nurtures startups in the lifestyle sector. Launched in 2019, O!VentUs is a program jointly operated by CJ and the Seoul Creative Economy Innovation Center to discover and foster promising startups.

The 12 startups finally selected for the 6th batch are categorized as follows: 2 companies in the ‘Food & Bio’ sector, 3 in ‘Logistics & New Distribution,’ 2 in ‘Entertainment & Media,’ 4 in ‘Digital Transformation (DT),’ and 1 in ‘Others.’ Many of these companies possess cutting-edge technologies and ideas such as big data and AI, and it is expected that they will create synergy effects from various perspectives in the future.

The selected startups will receive professional consulting services as well as continuous investment and growth opportunities based on the capabilities and infrastructure of CJ and the Seoul Creative Economy Innovation Center. In particular, the top startups will receive management and business strategy consulting directly from Kim Do-han, CEO of CJ Investment, CJ Group’s Corporate Venture Capital (CVC). Additionally, they will receive education and mentoring covering all aspects of business operations, including finance, legal affairs, and investor relations (IR).

Next month, CJ’s major affiliates will participate in ‘CJ Connect Day,’ where they will review potential business collaborations and investment opportunities with the startups. In August, CJ Investment will host an ‘IR Day’ to explore direct investment possibilities.

Finally, at the end of October, the ‘O!VentUs Demo Day’ will be held to introduce the companies that have scaled up through the accelerating program. Outstanding companies will receive continuous support, including up to 300 million KRW in commercialization funds linked to the Ministry of SMEs and Startups’ public-private cooperation open innovation support project.

Kim Do-han, CEO of CJ Investment, said, “Based on CJ Group’s ‘Only One’ management philosophy that pursues being the first, the best, and differentiated, we are striving to discover and nurture promising startups together. We will actively support startups so that their new and differentiated ideas can grow competitively.”

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