At the recent CES 2024, domestic venture companies and startups were highly active and won the most innovation awards ever. The government congratulated them and arranged a meeting to listen to their concerns.

On the 18th, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups invited representatives of CES 2024 Innovation Award winning companies to a meeting at the Seoul Creative Economy Innovation Center in Yongsan-gu, Seoul.

This symposium was organized to congratulate and encourage domestic venture and start-up companies that won the CES 2024 Innovation Awards, and to communicate by hearing the vivid voices from the field from the companies.

Ahead of the meeting, Minister Oh Young-joo announced that according to the additional innovation award results announced by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), 128 domestic venture and start-up companies won CES Innovation Awards at CES 2024, achieving the highest number ever.

A total of 362 companies were selected to receive this year's Innovation Award in 29 fields, including artificial intelligence (AI), digital health, smart cities, and robotics. Among them, domestic companies account for 150 companies (41.4%), and among them, small and medium-sized venture companies account for 133 companies, or 88.7% of the total.

In particular, 128 companies, or 85.3% of the domestic award-winning companies, are venture/start-up companies, and 106 companies (70.7%) were selected as startups with less than 7 years of operation, recording the highest number of awards ever.

A total of 33 companies from around the world won the Best Innovation Award, 12 of which were domestic companies. Among them, 8 venture and start-up companies were selected: Dirbar Co., Ltd., Studio Lab Co., Ltd., Top Table Co., Ltd., Onecom Co., Ltd., Flow Studio Co., Ltd., Road System Co., Ltd., Zcrypto Co., Ltd., and Mandro Co., Ltd., achieving the highest number of awards ever.

Minister Oh Young-joo encouraged the CEOs who received the innovation award at the meeting that day, saying, “I can see that the domestic startup ecosystem has grown qualitatively and quantitatively, and the status of Korean startups on the global stage has risen.”

In addition, we had time to listen to the various difficulties encountered in the process of starting a business, growing, and entering the global market. The CEOs who attended the meeting also suggested the government's continued interest and support for the growth and advancement of venture and start-up companies and their entry into the global market.

Minister Oh emphasized, “The Ministry of SMEs and Startups will establish customized policies necessary for startup growth by referring to opinions from the field, centering on the ‘Startup Korea Measures’ announced in August of last year to help Korea leap forward as a global startup powerhouse, and will focus its policy capabilities on globalizing our venture and startup ecosystem, such as creating a private-sector-centered venture investment ecosystem by establishing the Startup Korea Fund and easing regulations on corporate venture capital.”