Final Selection of Companies Conducting 'High-Risk, High-Performance R&D Projects'

Endorobotics and SBTL Advanced Materials Final Selection

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups (Minister Oh Young-joo) announced on the 2nd that it has finally selected two companies to carry out the 'High-risk, High-performance Research and Development (R&D) Project,' which is being promoted as a national agenda. This project sets ambitious goals to encourage promising innovative companies to boldly challenge high-risk R&D, with joint public-private support amounting to 10 billion KRW.

The two companies finally selected this time are Endorobotics and SBTL Advanced Materials. Endorobotics is a deep-tech company with 20 out of 23 employees being technical research experts and holds 58 intellectual property rights. To reflect clinical strategies and hospital demands during the technology development stage, it is collaborating with Stanford University, Seoul National University Hospital, and others. It was selected as a project-performing company because it is judged capable of commercializing the world's top-level next-generation surgical robot platform.

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SBTL Advanced Materials in the secondary battery field holds numerous patents related to pouch films and is evaluated to have superior technology compared to global competitors in areas such as fire and explosion prevention. It has obtained overseas quality certifications, enabling cooperation with European automobile manufacturers, and was selected considering the high growth potential of the secondary battery pouch market and the necessity of domestic production of the relevant technology.

The two companies selected this time are scheduled to receive large-scale support, including up to 4 billion KRW in equity investment matched with private investment and 3 billion KRW in contributed R&D funds. During the technology development process, scale-up TIPS operators and full-cycle management will be conducted simultaneously. Through this project, SBTL Advanced Materials is expected to develop materials that fundamentally block the risk of secondary battery fire and explosion, stabilize the supply chain of pouch films, which have over 90% import dependence, and achieve 320 billion KRW in new sales by 2026 and create 700 new jobs by 2028. Endorobotics is also expected to achieve 200 billion KRW in new sales by 2028 through securing world-class technology and products and expanding into the global market.

Lee Dae-hee, Director of the SME Policy Office at the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, said, "Since this project is being implemented for the first time, we plan to actively improve and supplement it by reflecting the opinions of operators and participating companies," adding, "Going forward, to enable genuine R&D, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups' R&D will establish an institutional foundation to function as a catalyst for nurturing deep-tech innovative companies."

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