POSCO startup POSCORE wins grand prize at D.Camp All-Star League

POSCORE, an in-house startup of South Korean steel giant POSCO Group, won the grand prize during an annual startup demo day hosted Wednesday by startup accelerator D.Camp in collaboration with 15 financial institutions. D.Camp is supported by the local Banks Foundation for Young Entrepreneurs.

POSCORE’s technology enables the production of ultra-efficient, eco-friendly motor cores, a vital part of automotive electrification, at lower cost using steel scrap. The technology impressed judges the most at the November D.Day, taking center stage at this year’s startup extravaganza.

D.Day is Korea's longest-running monthly startup pitch, attracting more than 9,200 startup pitches since June 2013. It was held this month as part of the D.Camp All-Star League, an annual startup fair co-hosted by D.Camp and Korean commercial banks and venture capitals to discover promising startups and advance their sustainable growth.

This year is the second running of the annual event, which packed in not only the pitch contested by 10 finalist startups but also an array of mentoring and networking events.

HOW TO WIN THE FUNDING WINTER

During the Office Hour event where discussions about early-stage startup investment and growth strategies took place, CJ Investment Inc.'s CEO Kim Do-han suggested that startups enhance their business competitiveness while waiting for the light at the end of the tunnel after a prolonged funding winter.

He projected improved investor sentiment next year accompanying a fall in interest rates.

CJ Investment is a corporate venture capital (CVC) of major Korean conglomerate CJ Corp., which controls diverse businesses in the food, bio, logistics, retail, entertainment and media sectors.

Korean startup executives already running successful businesses in foreign countries — CEO Lee Joo-won of Singapore-based digital asset management platform Endowus and CEO Kim Woo-seok of Vietnam’s motorbike e-commerce platform operator OKXE — joined the fair to share their business acumen.

Both advised fledgling startups to first understand a local market and then tap local talent and other resources to gain a foothold in overseas markets.

L&K Cosmetic's CEO Kwon Yong-soo shared his experience of launching the Korean cosmetics retail shop COS:MURA in Japan.

FIERCE COMPETITION TO JOIN D.DAY

The main event D.Day initially attracted 267 candidates, of which 10 finalists, including POSCORE, joined the race on Wednesday.

The November D.Day was divided into two parts, with the first involving five early-stage startups and the second for five startups seeking to raise seed funds or in a pre-Series A funding round.

Medi Node, the developer of an AI-supported inventory management program for medicine and medical supplies, and Lattice, the developer of an electric contract management solution, were the top two winners in the early-stage group.

Grey Box with customer relationship management (CRM) platform Notifly and OKXE boasting a 15% share of Vietnam's used motorbike trade market collected trophies in the second group.

Other contestants included WEPAIR, Textway, JM.Wave and wondermove.

Write to Sookyung Seo at skseo@hankyung.com
Jennifer Nicholson-Breen edited this article.