KOTRA to Participate in Asia’s Largest Open Innovation Event, 'Innovation Leaders Summit'

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The Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) announced on December 2 that it will participate in the Asia’s largest open innovation event, the Innovation Leaders Summit (ILS) 2025, held in Tokyo, Japan, together with 11 Korean artificial intelligence (AI) startups.

KOTRA Headquarters Exterior. KOTRA

Last year, ILS established itself as Asia’s leading open innovation platform, with 110 large corporations and 821 startups participating, resulting in a total of 3,249 business meetings and 923 collaborative projects being identified.

This year, 757 startups from 30 countries and 100 large corporations considering collaboration with them will participate. Over the five-day event, from the 1st to the 5th, pitching sessions and consultations will take place.

KOTRA plans to support Korean AI startups at the event so that they can establish technological and investment partnerships with global companies, including those from Japan.

On December 3, KOTRA will host the ‘Korea Innovation Startup Pitching (Company Introduction) Day,’ assisting innovative startups such as StudioLab (AI image auto-generation), Drivetec (logistics autonomous driving robots), and Genestory (gene analysis edutech) in their pitching sessions.

KOTRA will also arrange one-on-one technology and investment consultations with major Japanese corporations such as Panasonic, NTT Docomo, SBI Investment, and Sony Network Communications.

Park Yongmin, Head of KOTRA’s Japan Regional Headquarters, stated, “If the AI and digital application technologies of our startups are combined with the competitiveness of Japanese conglomerates in materials, components, and equipment, we can further enhance the competitiveness of the manufacturing sector. In addition to commercializing the collaboration opportunities identified at this event, we will continue to work to expand technological and investment cooperation opportunities between K-startups and Japanese conglomerates in the future.”

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