Seoul Metropolitan Government hosts the largest-ever ‘Seoul Pavilion’ at CES 2024 with 18 innovation awards recipients
Mayor Oh Se-hoon, Kim Hyun-woo (CEO of Seoul Business Agency), Gary Shapiro (CTA President), and other guests took a commemorative photo at the 'CES 2024' opening ceremony.
Seoul Metropolitan Government operates the largest Seoul Pavilion ever at CES 2024, the world’s largest consumer electronics and IT expo. It opened in Las Vegas, USA, for four days from January 9th (Tuesday) to 12th (Friday).
Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon visited the opening ceremony in the pavilion on January 9th at 10 AM (local time) to network with global companies, startups, governments, and IT experts worldwide to promote Seoul’s smart city competitiveness and Korean companies to the world stage.
CES is the world’s largest ICT expo, organized by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) and held every January in Las Vegas. Global companies leading the IT industry trends and startups with cutting-edge technologies participate. It is a business platform for investors, technologists, and customers worldwide.
Seoul Metropolitan Government first participated in CES in 2020 with 20 companies and has been operating the <Seoul Pavilion> to support investment promotion and sales of innovative companies based in Seoul. As the number of participating companies and innovation awards given to innovative technologies and products has been increasing, the Seoul Metropolitan Government said it plans to expand the city-led public-private entrepreneurship ecosystem to help innovative startups get noticed by investors.
The following COVID-19 pandemic halted face-to-face exchanges after CES 2020, but Seoul startups continued to expand their presence and fame. In the online-only 2021 edition, despite decreasing participants to 15, Seoul Pavilion saw 2 Innovation Award Winners for the first time in its CES exhibition history. In the online-physical hybrid 2022 edition, exhibitors increased to 25 with 6 Innovation Award Winners. When CES returned to its original state in 2023, exhibitors and Award Winners nearly tripled to 66 and 17, respectively. This year, 2024, Seoul Pavilion featured a record-setting 81 exhibiting startups and 18 Innovation Award Winners.
This year’s partners include 13 institutes such as Seoul Economic Promotion Agency, Seoul BioHub, Seoul AI Hub, Gwanak-gu, Korea University, Yonsei University, Sogang University, Hanyang University, Chung-Ang University, Konkuk University, Kookmin University, and Kyunghee University.
At CES 2024 <Seoul Pavilion>, Eureka Park (Tech West), a 670 square-meter startup exhibition hall, in cooperation with 13 organizations, including Seoul BioHub and Seoul AI Hub, will showcase the innovative technologies and products of 81 Seoul-based startups to investors from around the world.
Of the 81 companies participating in the Seoul Pavilion, 18 won the CES 2024 Innovation Awards. TopTable (personalized nutrition) and LordSystem (mobile passport) won the Best of Innovation Award – only given to the selected 1% of all exhibiting companies. Seoul Pavilion Exhibitors who won the CES 2024 Innovation Awards, including two companies stated above, are as follows:
– From Healthcare Category
DNA Corporation: Solutions based on genetic analysis technology
TopTable: 4D Food Printing Personalized Nutrition System
Solive Ventures: Sensory toys to reduce stereotyped behavior in autistic children
MetaImmuneTech: Immunity In-Vitro Diagnostics
mpWAV: Hearing aids utilizing smartphones and earphones
LinkSolutech: Disposable Endoscope Cap
Pantomics: Cardiac MRI image analysis and Software Medical Devices
BarunBio: Microelectrostimulation Healthcare Solutions
Plcoskin: Advanced Regenerative Medical Devices Tissue Regeneration Platform
Hurotics: Lower body strength training robotic suit for rehabilitation and professional athletes
RuahLab: Wearable Sleep Monitoring and Apnea Care Devices
– From Data-AI Category
LordSystem: Mobile passport identity authentication-based tourism and finance O2O platform
Onoma AI: Webtoon creation AI and Character creation platforms
Nation-A: 3D Character Modeling and Animation Creation Solutions
– From Quantum Category
QsimPlus: Specialized Near Field Quantum Communication Networks for Mobile Robots
SQK: Next-generation quantum computers with SW quantum computing accelerators
– From other categories
Mirroroid (Manufacturing): Detachable Beauty Solution Smart Mirror
Pablo Air (Mobility): Drones for art shows, UAM Traffic Control System
The Consumer Technology Association (CTA) established the CES Innovation Awards in 1976 to honor innovative products and new technologies for their technical, aesthetic, and creative qualities. Global company executives and industry experts respect the CES Innovation Awards as the highest honor. This year’s CES honored 36 Best of Innovation and 522 Innovation Awards in 29 categories.
Mayor Oh visited the opening event of the Seoul Pavilion at 11:00 AM on Thursday, September 9th, along with around 100 guests, including CTA Chairman Gary Shapiro and representatives from participating companies. Mayor Oh visited the booths of companies participating in the Seoul Pavilion, experienced their innovative technologies and products on display, and promised to provide all-out support to help innovative startups expand their technologies and services to overseas markets.
The opening ceremony began with a video of Seoulites cheering for Seoul startups. It featured the ‘Lighting of the Seoul Startup Innovation Tree,’ symbolizing the growth of startup seeds sowed by Seoul into global companies.
This year’s <Seoul Pavilion> exhibits innovative technology products from Healthcare (31), AI (25), Manufacturing (11), Mobility (7), ESG (4), and Quantum (3) fields from 81 companies, as well as pitching and networking programs for global investors and buyers.
Mayor Oh held a luncheon meeting with representatives of innovation award winner companies to encourage companies with good results with innovative technologies and products amid the global investment crisis and to hear firsthand about regulations and difficulties in worldwide expansion and commercialization.
In particular, he said that the Seoul Metropolitan Government should expand its support for removing regulatory barriers that hinder entrepreneurship in new industries and new technology startups and that Seoul should be a delivery platform to the central government regarding the release of regulations on their part.
