The Incheon Free Economic Zone Authority (IFEZ, hereinafter referred to as the Incheon Economic Authority) will select the products and technologies of nine domestic startups supported by Incheon Startup Park as the best innovation at CES 2024, the world’s largest IT and home appliance exhibition held in Las Vegas, USA in January next year. It was announced that a total of 11 categories, including one award, were selected for innovation awards.
The Incheon Economic Authority is an organization celebrating its 20th anniversary since its opening in 2003. It has actively supported the overseas expansion of companies under its jurisdiction and has been carrying out various activities by playing the role of activating foreign investment attraction.
As one of these activities, the Incheon Economic Office opened the Incheon Startup Park in cooperation with the Incheon Techno Park in February 2021 and has been jointly operating it to this day. Advocating as Korea’s first ‘Korean version of Silicon Valley’, it supports early-stage start-up companies in their verification, investment, and entry into the global market. In particular, it has achieved remarkable results by expanding full support for international fairs and exhibitions.
The Incheon Economic Authority, which has established Incheon Startup Park as the most important start-up support space in Korea, has allocated an additional budget starting this year to accelerate startups’ entry into the global market and city brand promotion, and a total of 30 companies will participate in CES 2024. supported. Among them, 16 companies have been approved to participate by the organizer, the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), and these companies plan to set up exhibition booths at Eureka Park, a national and startup exhibition hall.
At the same time, the Incheon Economic Office plans to operate the ‘Incheon/IFEZ Promotion Hall’ of 40 pyeong in the AI and Robotics Zone of the Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC), the main exhibition hall. It also announced a policy to promote the products and technologies of 34 startup companies through a public relations center exclusively operated by local governments across the country, and to widely publicize the achievements of each company through an online briefing on the global media stage.
Regarding the background of supporting the large-scale participation of domestic startups in CES, Shim Soon-ok, Smart City Manager at the Incheon Economic Office, said, “At the world’s largest expo, we will not only showcase Incheon City’s smart city technology to overseas countries, but also ensure that it is recognized as an internationally competitive city.” He explained, “In addition, we will establish a bridgehead for global expansion by promoting innovative companies and startup technologies fostered by Incheon.”
In particular, as many as 9 startups participating in this year’s CES under the Incheon Startup Park support program were honored with 11 innovation awards, including 1 Best Innovation Award. The CES Innovation Award is an award given annually by CTA to corporate products that demonstrate the most innovative technology in various consumer technology product categories. This year, 36 Best Innovation Awards and 522 Innovation Awards were awarded in a total of 29 categories.
First, Road System (CEO Jang Yang-ho) won two awards, winning the Best Innovation Award and the Cybersecurity & Personal Privacy Innovation Award in the Financial Technologies category for its ‘Trip Pass Mobile Passport Platform’ technology. Their Trip Pass is a tourism and financial O2O service for domestic and foreign tourists based on ‘mobile passport’, a digital identity authentication technology, and provides services such as simple payment, transportation card, duty free, shopping, facial recognition access authentication, and hotel fast check-in. provides.
Microsystems (CEO Jeong Sang-guk) was also selected for the Innovation Award in the Cyber Security & Personal Information category for its ‘DFS-aided Cyber Security Camera’, thereby achieving a significant achievement of receiving the 5-year Innovation Award. These products protect the user’s personal information and confidentiality by opening the camera lens only when necessary, and have a function to quickly remove contamination caused by rainwater, moisture, dust, etc. on the camera lens, providing error-free video control in various indoor and outdoor environments. makes possible.
Banff (CEO Seonghan Yoo) was selected for the Innovation Award in the Advanced Mobility (Vehicle Tech and Advanced Mobility) category for its next-generation smart tire technology ‘BANF iSensor’. It prevents accidents by analyzing tire and road conditions in real time, and improves fuel efficiency by evaluating and adjusting wheel alignment scores in real time.
Gore Robotics (CEO Lee Dong-min) was selected for the Innovation Award in the Robotics category for its self-driving robot ‘AIR-AMR’, which automates material transportation and unmannes labor-intensive work. With functions such as efficient material transportation and autonomous construction site exploration, it minimizes manpower requirements and management difficulties at construction sites, and its robust design has been evaluated as a product that shows excellent stability even in harsh environments.
Naughty Guard (CEO Kim Kyung-ha) was selected for the Innovation Award in the Mobile Devices, Accessories & Apps category for its no-code-based mobile application (app) development and operation service ‘ohmyapp’. Oh My App is a SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) solution that allows even non-experts to build and operate an app in just two weeks. The mobile app development process requires an average of 3 to 6 months from planning to launch, and Requirements can be dramatically reduced.
Safeware (CEO Shin Hwan-cheol), a human safety solution company, was selected for the Innovation Award in the Human Security for All category through ‘Best Personal Mobility Airbag’. When a driver’s accident is detected through the motion recognition sensor built into the wearable airbag, the electronic inflator inflates the airbag in 0.2 seconds, and has been recognized for its outstanding practicality and innovation based on its functionality to protect the user’s vulnerable areas of serious injury.
Sheco (CEO Ki-seong Kwon) won the Innovation Award in the Drones & Unmanned Systems category and the Human Security category for its ‘Sheco Arc-M’ platform, which encompasses underwater drones and unmanned mobile systems that remove environmental pollutants from seas and waters. Each was selected. The purification solutions of these platforms reflect real-time contaminant separation technology, resulting in immediate and efficient water purification effects.
Little Cat (CEO Kim Dae-yong) was selected for the Innovation Award in the Digital Health category for its ‘INPET’ platform, which focuses on monitoring cat body composition. It collects and obtains eight types of biometric data, including the cat’s muscle mass, using a patented sensor and system, and provides the results of a more visible and intuitive analysis through the user’s smartphone app. It received excellent reviews in that it can prevent obesity and other complications in cats, which are rapidly increasing recently.
Music tech startup Versys (CEO Seong-wook Lee) was selected for the Innovation Award in the artificial intelligence (AI) category for its ‘Beat-based AI Music Video Generator’. Their software connects an interaction engine to multiple music and video sources created through generative AI to display different music and video results depending on user behavior. It provides the convenience of creating natural short-form music videos without any additional tools. received high scores in
Kim Jin-yong, head of the Incheon Free Economic Zone Authority, said, “Winning an award at CES is very meaningful in that it demonstrates the world-class innovation of the products and technologies of many domestic startups.” He added, “We will continue to support Incheon companies through participation in CES and related support.” “We will actively support it so that it can become a global company,” he said.
Meanwhile, ‘CES’, the world’s largest IT exhibition hosted by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), is an exhibition where you can see the flow of innovative technologies around the world at a glance and is held every January in Las Vegas, USA. AVING News, which has covered CES for 18 consecutive years, has reported CES news around the world every year since 2006, and has been selected through ‘BEST OF CES’ and ‘BEST OF MADE IN KOREA’, which select the best innovative products, companies and technologies. has been in progress. In addition, CES on-site issues are vividly conveyed through ‘AVING LIVE’.
* Special reporters: Joseph Choe, Kidai Kim, Dongkwan Kim, Mokkyung Lee, Sangun Choi, Seung Hyun Nam, Sunghwan Kim, Taeuck Lim, Min Choi