Promising K-startups to present B2B transition strategies at Geeks Show Up

Come this Thursday, 10 select startups will duke it to prove their business-to-business (B2B) model has the best chance of success. 

The startup division of The Korea Economic Daily is hosting the one-day Geeks Show Up event on the resort island of Jeju, where startup founders in the eco-friendly, mobility and tourism sectors will present their ideas on how to take their budding startups forward. 

Jeju Island is emerging as a test bed for startups as the region has become a regulatory sandbox. Public entities like the Jeju Free International City Development Center are leading the island’s efforts in attracting leading startups. 

The 10 startups will present their open innovation plans alongside conglomerates and other strategies for scaling up. 

Out of the startups that applied last month to participate in Thursday's event, a total of five have been chosen, namely Poen, Mobbin, Ipin Labs, Klleon, and Blinkers.

Poen started as a startup within Hyundai Motor Co., a firm working to give new life to used EV batteries. 

Mobbin makes delivery robots on wheels while Ipin Labs develops location-tracking software. 

Klleon uses deep learning to generate virtual humans and provide dubbing solutions. 

Blinkers is the operator of Bank of Wine, which mints and issues non-fungible tokens (NFTs) that hold information about a specific wine and can be traded in for an actual bottle of wine. 

They will compete against five startups based in Jeju, namely Dazayo, Nanoom Energy, Nei & Company, Bluewhale Company and Quantum Solution, for a reward of 30 million won ($22,755).

Dazayo leads a project in Jeju that turns abandoned houses into commercial spaces and Nanoom Energy conducts research and development (R&D) on solar energy convergence.

Nei is a mobility as a service (MaaS) platform that aims to utilize the existing public transportation system in a more eco-friendly way.

Bluewhale Company provides last-mile logistics services and Quantum Solution aims to offer the highest quality management of EV batteries. 

A group of venture capital veterans will serve as judges for the event, headed by the CEO of Xplor Investment Lee Jong-hoon. Xplor is the corporate venture capital arm of GS Engineering & Construction Co.

The startups were selected under the premise that Geeks Show Up is forming a fund worth 10 billion won and the judges were distributing the investment based on the startups' growth potential, profitability and open innovation feasibility. 

The companies that hypothetically could raise the most amount of money were chosen to present their strategies at the upcoming event.

Write to Lan Heo, Eun-Yi Ko and Jong-Woo Kim at why@hankyung.com
Jee Abbey Lee edited this article.