At COMEUP 2022, media from all around the world chose startups to be awarded at the Global Media Awards held at Dongdaemun Design Plaza in Seoul. Among the judges were AVING News, Vietnamplus, Gadget Touch, and Le Café du Geek represented by Leo Thevenet.
The Ten Global Media Award Winners
The judges awarded the startups based on their potential for success on the market, positive responses from the COMEUP visitors, and how innovative their technology is. The judges came from USA, France, Vietnam, Japan, and Korea – And here are the ten picks for the Global Media Awards.
AIRS Medical – Providing medical AI solutions
Established in 2018, AIRS Medical makes a solution for a changing healthcare market. The promising startup has been able to attract as much as 25.3 billion KRW in Series B round investments in July of this year, totaling 33.9 billion KRW thus far in total.
The goal that the company has set for itself is to overcome the limitations that burden conventional medical services. In order to achieve this, they will use preemptive technology, effectively securing a higher quality in human life by means of “Predictive Health”.
SwiftMR is the first step in that direction – This AI software restores the quality of conventional accelerated imaging using magnetic resonance imaging. The service is provided on a cloud platform on a System-as-a-Service basis, and can be used immediately with existing MRI equipment, regardless of model or brand.
The workflow of staff is aided by adding it into picture archives and communication systems automatically, and producing the images in the international standard for medical images. The service hopes to reduce wait times for diagnoses and improving the process of radiation work.
Storelink
Storelink’s service is a Marketing Platform that presents marketing solutions based on open market analysis – Namely how consumers browse for products and their purchasing habits. They have successfully secured both 100.000 commerce business members and 11 billion KRW in cumulative investments. Their automated platform has now helped Storelink achieve over 20 billion KRW in sales.
Based on more than 80 patterns in consumers’ purchasing patterns, sellers are now able to see results in real time after a simple click-through. Storelink is working on improving their service to be simpler, and by adjusting to their clients’ needs continuously.
Galaxy Corporation
Galaxy Corporation makes real as well as character avatars, many of them for celebrities, in the Metaverse. Their service allows the stars to increase their height, bring live animals on stage and even duet with performers who have passed away.
They are also active on social media, showing their avatars on TikTok and partaking in content production and management.
PLANA
For the Global Media Awards, PLANA has presented its vertical landing and take-off aircraft: “Air Taxis” that can be integrated into urban transportation. These are planned to be launched in 2028, and will fly mid- to long distances, just over 500 km at 300-350 km/h. The Taxi can land and launch anywhere without the need for a long runway, and transport up to five passengers plus a pilot. This exciting innovation could help in congested traffic situations, and accelerate simple travel.
Metatexture
The food-tech startup has introduced their new plant-based alternative to eggs called “SweetEgg”. This vegan protein source is 80% similar to the real texture of egg whites. The market, especially overseas, is highly receptive of alternatives, although most have been replacements for meat up until now.
The eggs will come boiled, dried in its entirety, creamy like whipped eggs, and can be used in a multitude of dishes. At the end of November, you should be able to find SweetEgg in some convenience stores!
TeamSparta
TeamSparta showcased its coding education service “Sparta Coding Club” and their developer employment platform “Intellipick”. The former was awarded “Brand of the Year 2022” in the coding education category by the Customers Council this September. With a high completion rate for their lessons as well as the tailored coding lessons for companies, many sales have been successfully conducted, with more planned domestically as well as overseas.
Additionally, TeamSparta operates two bootcamps for coding, “Port 99”, and “Chang” for employees. Intellipick launched last June, and has reportedly helped around 800 companies find developers. This way sourcing, distributing and developing talent in terms of coding are all taken care of by the services of TeamSparta.
AIMS
AIMS, established in 2018, presented its ecologically friendly exchangeable vehicle battery charging station. The prototype was launched in July 2021, and this far 40 stations have been installed around the country for both general customers as well as delivery agencies. After securing a government subsidy for their electric scooter LEO, AIMS is now looking to expand to South America and Europe, installing over 100 units this year.
The status of the battery life can be monitored easily, and since the vehicles are operated not by a loud internal combustion engine, but a battery, they are silent and do not add to pollution on the street. AIMS is now continuing to improve their charging service, as well as their battery technology.
Flipper Corporation
Awarded the “Excellence Award for the Korea Challenge” at “Try Everything 2022”, Flipper Corporation has an app building service for developing mobile apps that requires no coding. The company presented “Hitbim”, their Software-as-a-Service platform which enables the app creation based on JavaScript with a few clicks.
The service is a cheaper alternative to conventional app building practices, and produces apps that can be distributed globally on the App Store and Google Play. Despite its beginner-friendly nature, Hitbim provides various functions that can be added by drag-and-drop, and is continuously expanding its templates.
SqueezeBits
This Global Media Award winner showcased their AI Model Compression Toolkit, that is meant to target the great demand of the global market. Established in March of 2022, the team of SqueezeBits is made up of POSTECH researchers that specialized in AI compression technology for six years.
Their toolkit will help those without experience to test and apply related technology, and has three main functions: AI model visualization, AI model quantization, and its comparative analysis of the speed and accuracy of the compressed models.
This beginner-friendly service is scheduled to launch in the first half of 2023, when the product will have been optimized for easy use and clients needs.
Covering
Covering is a recycling startup established in 2020. At the Global Media Awards, they showcased their recycling and household waste collection service “Recle”. This service sorts and separates trash from both households and businesses for their convenience and to promote eco-friendly practices.
Recle now services Gwangjin-gu, Seoul, Gangnam-gu, Seongdong-gu, and some parts of Seocho-gu, and is growing its user base by over 20% monthly. Covering hopes for many business partnerships, and expressed its wish to transcend the collection of household waste, entering into bulk waste and used goods. Eventually, all disposable items from households should be secured by Recle, and subsequently repurposed as raw materials.
