OpenAI Selects 10 Korean Startups for AI Support Program
On March 14th (local time), the Ministry of SMEs and Startups (MSS) of South Korea organized the ‘K-Startup & OpenAI Matching Day in the US’ at the headquarters of OpenAI, a leader in global AI, located in Silicon Valley, USA. The event marked the final presentation and evaluation of startups set to collaborate with OpenAI as part of the 2024 Global Corporate Collaboration Program.
In June of the previous year, during a roundtable with OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman, the MSS agreed to jointly foster promising Korean AI startups through a global corporate collaboration program. In December, a ‘K-Startup & Open AI Matching Day‘ was hosted in Korea, selecting 14 startups from 220 applicants through document reviews and preliminary evaluations for the collaboration program with OpenAI.
These 14 promising AI startups, having passed the domestic preliminaries, took the stage once again before the OpenAI executive team in the US.
The event proceeded with encouraging remarks from Jeongwook Lim, the Director of the Startup Venture Innovation Office at MSS, and Jeongtaek Lim, the Consul General of the Republic of Korea in San Francisco. This was followed by the startups’ passionate presentations and engaging Q&A sessions with the OpenAI executives.
After evaluating the results from OpenAI experts and reviewing the support project’s participation requirements, the MSS selected 10 startups for the 2024 Global Corporate Collaboration Program. The chosen startups will receive up to KRW 200 million in commercialization funds from MSS, as well as credits for using OpenAI services, expert mentoring, and consulting from OpenAI.
- Asleep : Enhancing work efficiency and personalized sleep management by combining sleep analysis and language model technologies.
- Cliwant : Offering specialized LLM services for bidding through AI context analysis.
- DKMediInfo : Creating nursing diagnosis records and generating systems using virtual patient data
- Marinachain : Implementing Scope 3 carbon emission accounting for maritime, port, and logistics supply chains with AI technology
- NextPayments : Supporting the digital transformation of offline stores with an AI-based smart retail solution
- NineWatt : Providing carbon emission reduction solutions through the building energy analysis platform based on digital twin technology
- Learn Korean in Korean : Supplying prompts and fine-tuning datasets to improve ChatGPT’s proficiency in Korean
- Turing : Delivering personalized student-level analysis and recommended learning materials through a self-math education platform utilizing deep learning
- WADDLE : Developing a technology-based service to extract relevant product information from shopping mall images for voice-guided navigation
- Weraser : Automating shipment document input with Vision AI technology.
Following the presentations, ‘Marinachain’, ‘WADDLE’, and ‘Cliwant’ were awarded the ‘Most AGI Potential Award’ based on the OpenAI executives’ on-site evaluations.
A highlight of the event was an unplanned visit by Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, who engaged with the startup representatives during a Q&A session. The representatives inquired about various topics, including the launch plans for GPT-5, the future of AI technology, and AI chip production, with Altman providing thoughtful answers to each question.
Minister Oh Young-ju of the MSS expressed hope for the startups participating in the event to evolve into globally competitive AI companies through collaboration with OpenAI. She affirmed, “The Ministry of SMEs and Startups will continuously expand collaborations with global industry leaders like OpenAI to improve the technological development capabilities of promising domestic startups and promote their expansion into global markets.”
[Korean Startup Going global News]
- KDB Takes Korean Innovation to Silicon Valley: “KDB NextRound” Connects Startups with Global Investors
- ‘Startup Korea Fund’ launched with KRW 500 billion from government and private investors
- Seoul Business Agency Recruits Startups for Global SNS Marketing Support Project
- MSS and MoFA of Korea Launch Consultative Bodies for Global SME Support
- Seoul Metropolitan Government Initiates Program to Support Startups in Achieving Global Growth
- Deeping Source Partners with Aix to Transform Japanese Retail with AI
- SparkLabs to Host Saudi Market Entry Strategy Seminar on the 19th in Seoul
- Five Seoul-Based Innovators Achieve Approximately 39.7 Billion KRW in SCSE
- Korea Accelerator Association Partners with Vietnam BSSC for Startup Ecosystems
- MSS of Korea Initiates Global Acceleration Program for Female Entrepreneurs
