Mercedes-Benz Korea has finalized the selection of eight startups to participate in the startup nurturing program ‘Startup Autobahn Korea 2023’ and has officially kicked off the 100-day nurturing program, starting with a workshop held in Busan.
This year’s ‘Startup Autobahn Korea’, which is the fourth iteration, saw participating startups present their businesses to partner companies, including Mercedes-Benz Korea and LG Electronics, during the ‘Selection Day’ held in July. Following this, they were evaluated based on their future growth potential, scalability, and collaboration possibilities with partner companies, ultimately being selected in the fields of advanced industry R&D such as smart factories, artificial intelligence, and autonomous driving.
The selected startups commenced their participation in the programs with a ‘Project Workshop’ conducted over two days on the 10th and 11th of this month at the ‘Busan Eurasia Platform’, where they established plans for the upcoming program processes and support for collaboration and mentoring.
Mercedes-Benz Korea aims to nurture companies that attract global attention through collaborations with eight young and promising startups – Sizl, Cogcom, DeepBrainAI, ZenzenAI, IYAL, Space & Bean, Mola Inc., and OptAI – which were selected from a competitive rate of 30:1 among more than 240 domestic and international startups.
The eight participating startups in the 100-day nurturing program will receive technical support from their partner companies, conduct technology validation (PoC), and engage in venture capital networking for investment attraction, culminating in an ‘Expo Day’ in December where they will present their final results, marking the end of their 2023 journey.
Startup Autobahn started in 2016 at the Mercedes-Benz headquarters in Germany and was introduced in Korea in 2020 as the seventh location globally, being held annually. Up until last year, Mercedes-Benz Korea has nurtured a total of 31 promising companies and has previously provided opportunities for excellent companies to participate in Startup Autobahn in Germany, allowing them to network with the headquarters and various global partners.
Ji-sang Lee daedusj@autodiary.kr