Hyundai, Samsung-backed startups vie for spotlight at CES  

LAS VEGAS – At CES, big tech names often take center stage but this is also a dream place for underdogs to become rising stars with unconventional ideas like Samsung-backed Yellosis with smart toilets and Hyundai-sponsored Mobinn with self-driving delivery robots.

On Wednesday, Samsung Electronics Co.'s special booth for startups at Eureka Park at the Venetian Expo in Las Vegas was crowded with visitors checking somewhat radical but essential technologies fostered by the South Korean tech giant’s C-Lab projects.

Samsung Electronics invited Korean startups along to CES for the first time in 2012 and since then it has invited its C-Lab startups to join it at the world’s largest electronics trade show every year, except during the COVID-19 pandemic, to support their forays into overseas markets.  

It has picked 15 startups for this year’s CES, including those from the C-Lab Inside for Samsung’s in-house startups, C-Lab Outside for non-Samsung, independent startups and C-Lab Inside for spin-off startups.

Of them, smart toilets presented by Samsung Electronics’ startup spin-off Yellosis have been attracting a lot of attention.

The Korean digital health startup developed artificial intelligence-powered toilet systems that can diagnose any chronic disease by automatically measuring and analyzing urine.

The company, which originally joined Samsung’s C-Lab Inside program but has been standing alone since 2020, was named a CES Innovation Award Honoree in three categories, including Digital Health, Smart Cities and Human Security for All.

It is already taking pre-orders for Cym702 Circle, a smart toilet that can measure glucose in liquid body waste in public restrooms, said Tak Yu-kyung, Yellosis founder and chief executive officer.

The company also plans to launch Cym702 Seat, a smart toilet for home use, in the latter half of this year, she added.

Visitors to Samsung’s startup booth can also check the technology of Dr.Tail, an online veterinary consultation service, which has already handled about 380,000 cases in the US.

Samsung Electronics plans to incorporate Dr.Tail’s services into Samsung Smart TVs to be rolled out in the US this year.

In addition to Dr.Tail, Samsung Electronics also brought nine other startups supported by its C-Lab Outside program, such ah Ghost Pass, a developer of decentralized remote biometric authentication solutions, and RebuilderAI, a developer of AI solutions for fast and easy 3D content creation on smartphones.

HYUNDAI MOTOR’S ZERO1NE PAVILION

Korea’s other household name Hyundai Motor Group, parent of Hyundai Motor Co. and Kia Corp., has also opened a special space for startups fostered by its open innovation platform ZERO1NE at CES 2024.

Microsoft Corp.’s CEO Satya Nadella on Tuesday visited the ZERO1NE Pavilion at Eureka Park to check out the self-driving delivery robot developed by Hyundai-supported startup Mobinn.

Mobinn CEO Choi Jin demonstrated its autonomous delivery robots to Nadella who showed great interest in the robot’s target customers and anticipated market size.

It currently plans to offer its autonomous robots for services in residential and office buildings in Korea, said Choi.

Started as Hyundai Motor's in-house startup in 2018, Mobinn was a CES Innovation Award winner for a second consecutive year this year. The company’s self-driving technology can be applied to other service robots such as logistics, traffic and security robots.

The ZERO1NE Pavilion also houses other 10 startups, including Green Whale Global, which develops friendly biodegradable plastic materials and products, Artwa, the developer of multi-purpose amphibious self-driving robots and DEEP.FINE, which provides a solution for constructing real-world spatial information based on eXtended Reality (XR) technology.

The Korean auto giant has spun off 36 in-house startups since it launched ZERO1NE Ventures in 2018.

It has discovered 128 startups through its startup incubation platform for non-Hyundai companies, of which 97 have received investments from Hyundai Motor.

Other startups at the ZERO1NE Pavilion include Pebblous, Koop Technologies, APLAYZ, DATAMOND, POEN, Day1Lab.

Samsung’s other startups joining CES 2024 are Becon, Goose Labs, ID.EARS, DumboCam, DEEPX, Style Bot, Vision, DolbomDream, 60Hertz, Wrtn Technologies and NdotLight.

Hyundai and Samsung's startup booths will welcome visitors until Jan. 12. 

Write to Jae-Fu Kim and Lan Heo at hu@hankyung.com

Sookyung Seo edited this article.