Domestic Companies Win Record Number of Awards at CES... 85% Are SMEs

Ministry of SMEs and Startups Holds Achievement Sharing Meeting
Korean Companies Win 45% of All CES Innovation Awards
Remarkable Success with 15 out of 34 Best of Innovation Awards

Domestic companies received the highest number of Innovation Awards ever at the world's largest electronics and IT exhibition CES 2025, gaining recognition for their technological capabilities in the global market. Notably, small and medium-sized venture companies accounted for 85% of all award-winning companies.

On the 21st, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups held a 'CES 2025 K-Startup Pavilion Participating Companies and Innovation Award Winners Meeting' at the Global Startup Center (GSC) in Gangnam, Seoul, to share the achievements at this CES. The meeting was attended by over 50 companies participating in the Ministry’s 'K-Startup Pavilion,' including 20 companies that received CES Innovation Awards.

Minister Oh Young-joo of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups speaking. Photo by Yonhap News

At this CES, 151 domestic companies participated and received 208 Innovation Awards. This is the highest number of awards ever received by Korean companies in CES history. By country, Korea ranked first worldwide, accounting for about 45.4% of the total 458 Innovation Awards announced at CES. Among these, small and medium-sized venture companies received a total of 131 Innovation Awards.

By company size, out of 149 award-winning companies, 127 were small and medium-sized ventures, making up 85% of the total. Of these, approximately 86.6%, or 110 companies, participated in Ministry-supported projects such as startup commercialization, research and development (R&D), and investments from the Korea Fund of Funds.

In the category of the highest Innovation Awards, given to companies with the most innovative technologies in each field, domestic companies stood out by winning 15 out of 34 awards. Among them, four small and medium-sized venture companies?Sierra Base, GhostPass, Suprema AI, and Foscom?were honored with awards.

At the meeting, success stories of the award-winning companies were presented. Suyeon Yoo, CEO of Nation A, which won two Innovation Awards for two consecutive years at CES, shared the awarded products and the outcomes of participating in CES. Seungwoong Jang, CEO of TenMinds, who has received a total of five Innovation Awards up to this year, shared know-how on overseas market development and growth with junior entrepreneurs.

In the subsequent review seminar, many companies participated to share their experiences, including Sierra Base, which won the highest Innovation Award in the smart city sector, and Greeneta, which signed a technology development memorandum of understanding (MOU) with NVIDIA.

Oh Young-joo, Minister of SMEs and Startups, said at the meeting, "I feel proud that most of the companies that won Innovation Awards at this CES have grown based on the Ministry’s support projects," adding, "We will continue to strive to provide the driving force for ‘K-Startups’ to go even further."

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