KITA-BMW to Support Technology Verification and Scale-up of Innovative Startups

- KITA, BMW Korea, Gyeonggi Center for Creative Economy and Innovation, and Future Play signed MOU for 'Discovering Promising Domestic Startups and PoC Support’ -

 

The Korea International Trade Association (Chairman: Christopher Koo) announced that it signed ‘MOU on Discovering Promising Domestic Startups and PoC Support’ with BMW Korea, Gyeonggi Center for Creative Economy and Innovation (GCCEI), and Future Play at the COEX Startup Branch on July 16th.

 

Managing Director Shin Seung-gwan of the Korea International Trade Association, R&D Director Dieter Strobl of BMW Korea, Director Shin Hyun-sam of GCCEI, and CEO Ryu Joong-hee of Future Play attended the signing ceremony.

Based on this MOU, the four organizations will jointly organize ‘BMW Testbed Project’ and also collaborate with BMW’s startup foster·investment program ‘Startup Garage’ to discover promising startups and provide opportunities for overseas expansion and technology verification. GCCEI will support funding for technology verification while Future Play will provide consultations.

The Korea International Trade Association had matched BMW and Seoul Robotics with 3D LiDAR technology in 2019. Then, Seoul Robotics was selected as a research partner for the smart infrastructure development of the BMW manufacturing plant after technical verification. In order to discover promising domestic startups and help them expand to overseas, the association and BMW are working together with the GCCEI and Future Play and jointly promote this test bed project.

The BMW Testbed Project will begin by recruiting startups wishing to participate in August and single out five startups after sharing the final technology verification results in November based on three-month technical verification. The selected startups will become business partners of BMW Korea. The startups will be also recommended to BMW headquarters if their technical verification results are remarkable. It will give them a comprehensive business cooperation opportunities.

Managing Director Shin Seung-gwan of the Korea International Trade Association, said, “This test bed project will play a significant role in helping Korean startups expand to overseas as it will provide an opportunity to cooperate with BMW, a leader in the mobility industry, for systematic technical verification,” and added, “We will create good success stories and with those experiences, we will further expand open innovation opportunities with global conglomerates.”