Kyowon Group Hosts Startup Demo Day... 'Gadget Korea' Takes 1st Place

Kyowon Group is taking a commemorative photo with the startups that participated in the '2023 Kyowon Deep Change Startup Prize Demo Day' on the 14th.

Kyowon Group announced on the 15th that it held the ‘2023 Kyowon Deep Change Startup Prize Demo Day’ at Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) on the 14th.

The ‘Deep Change Startup Prize’ is an event that Kyowon Group has hosted annually since 2019 to discover promising startups and seek open innovation opportunities. This year marks its 5th edition.

This year, Kyowon Group established a cooperative system with Daesang Holdings, Hana Bank, and Home&Shopping, expanding its network with accelerators, venture capitalists, and support organizations, thereby serving as an open innovation hub and supporting startup growth.

For this Deep Change Startup Prize, startups were recruited across six fields including Edutech, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Big Data, Metaverse and Blockchain, Fintech, Foodtech, and Lifestyle, resulting in a total of about 256 startups applying. Kyowon Group and its partner companies selected eight final companies to continue open innovation and mutual growth.

The startups finally selected are ▲Gadget Korea (operator of eSIM-based data roaming service USIM) ▲Big House Entertainment (global documentary content production) ▲Samsin (startup specializing in frozen eggs and infertility technology) ▲CV3 (e-commerce data analytics company) ▲Orange Football Network (global sports education content platform) ▲J-Fun (Southeast Asia cross-border performance marketing platform) ▲Jupiter Labs (solutions and fulfillment services for Dongdaemun wholesale and retail merchants) ▲Peter Peter (pet genetic testing service). At the demo day, each startup shared their business models and PoC (Proof of Concept) achievements.

Kyowon Group, through evaluations by open innovation partners and venture investment stakeholders, selected ‘Gadget Korea’ as the 1st place Deep Change Award winner. Kyowon Group expects synergy with its comprehensive travel brand ‘Travel Easy,’ focusing on the increasing demand for overseas travel.

Including Gadget Korea, a total investment of 4.1 billion KRW was confirmed for the companies participating in this demo day, including joint investments, and prize money of 46 million KRW was awarded. In addition, Kyowon Group plans to support startup growth through various support programs such as continuously developing collaboration models with Kyowon Group and its partner companies.

A Kyowon Group official said, “We are pleased that many startups participated and meaningful results were achieved as a result of signing partnerships with companies in various industries this year and transforming into an open innovation hub,” adding, “We will continue to fulfill our social responsibility by establishing a sustainable win-win cooperation system to help promising startups develop.”

Meanwhile, Kyowon Group has selected and nurtured 62 startups over the past five years through the open innovation platform ‘Deep Change Startup Prize,’ launched as part of discovering and supporting startups and preparing for the future. A total of 78 collaborations are ongoing. The cumulative investment amount, including joint investments, is approximately 11.4 billion KRW. Kyowon Group has established a permanent support system to assist in discovering cooperative business models linking all its affiliates.

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