[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Yoon-joo] The Korea International Trade Association (KITA) announced on the 29th that it is recruiting companies to participate in the 'Indonesia Jakarta Lotte Mart Testbed,' the first overseas testbed project for domestic startups to expand abroad.
Startups selected for the testbed can freely apply their technologies at Jakarta Lotte Mart to maximize customer shopping convenience, enhance sales marketing effectiveness, and reduce facility operating costs. They will also receive benefits such as opportunities to verify products, services, and technologies over two months, as well as on-site meetings with local venture capital (VC) investors.
KITA plans to expand the 'Startup Overseas Testbed' program from Indonesia in the first half of the year to landmark facilities in Europe such as Spain and Luxembourg in the second half.
Last year, the 'COEX Startup Testbed,' the first of its kind in Korea initiated by KITA through a private competition, received a total of 198 applications. Currently, startups specializing in parking location tracking, artificial intelligence (AI) security robots, and eco-friendly technologies are in negotiations to finalize contracts with related companies at the Trade Center.
Joo Sang-hyun, Head of the Startup Global Support Office, stated, "Multi-complex facilities serve as miniature smart cities where 4th industrial technologies such as AI, big data, and augmented reality (AR) can be applied, and we expect them to become forward bases for startups' overseas expansion." He added, "We plan to continuously expand this support project that utilizes overseas landmark facilities as living labs for domestic startups."
Companies wishing to participate in the Startup Overseas Testbed can apply through KITA's global open innovation specialized platform, ‘Innobranch.com,’ by May 8.
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