AR/VR specialist Virnect wins top award
31 companies participated and proposed 43 ideas related to 5G services.
Strengthening collaboration with small and medium-sized enterprises and venture companies to provide innovative technologies based on 5G networks.

In the '5G Service Contest' planned by KT to create the 5G era together with small and medium-sized enterprises and venture companies, AR/VR specialist company Virnect won the grand prize.

KT announced that it held an awards ceremony for its 5G Service Contest on the 21st at the KT Gwanghwamun Building East in Jongno-gu, Seoul. Key executives related to KT's new businesses, including President of Management Support Ku Hyeon-mo and Executive Director of the Integrated Security Business Unit Song Jae-ho, attended the ceremony and congratulated the award-winning companies.

This contest, organized by KT to develop services suitable for 5G networks in collaboration with small and medium-sized enterprises and venture companies, accepted ideas for a month from August 1st to September 1st. In March of this year, KT launched the "KT-Eco Alliance," an open technology consultative body, to collaborate with small and medium-sized enterprises and venture companies in 11 new business areas, including 5G and fintech. This contest was primarily conducted by participating companies of the KT-Eco Alliance.

As a result of the deadline, 31 companies submitted 43 ideas across various fields, including augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR), the Internet of Things (IoT), security, and drones. After a first round of proposal review and a second round of presentation review, seven excellent ideas were selected. The grand prize went to Virnect, which proposed an "AR service platform utilizing KT's 5G network." Additionally, A2Tech, which proposed a "Point Cloud-based 5G Media Service Platform," and Eloise, which proposed a "Mixed Reality AI Avatar Platform," won Excellence Awards. Additionally, four companies, including Intellibix and Studio Macrograph, received Encouragement Awards.

KT awarded a total of 30 million won in prize money to seven winning companies, including 10 million won for the grand prize, 5 million won for the excellence award, and 2.5 million won for the encouragement award. KT also plans to support the commercialization of each idea. After the awards ceremony, representatives from KT and the winning companies discussed commercialization of their ideas and 5G-related cooperation plans.

“KT’s contest has become a new breakthrough for small and medium-sized venture companies that have good ideas but have had difficulty making them a reality,” said Taejin Ha, CEO of Burnect, who received the grand prize. “I expect that 5G, which KT is leading, will turn what was previously only imaginable into reality.”

Park Jong-yeol, executive director of KT's SCM Strategy Office who hosted this event, said, "KT is strengthening collaboration with small and medium-sized enterprises and venture companies to provide innovative technologies and services that people need based on the 5G era, not just networks." He added, "We will continue to pursue collaboration programs with small and medium-sized enterprises and venture companies, such as the KT-Eco Alliance, which formed the basis of this contest."