Martial Arts Genre Promotes 'Startup Testbed' in the United States

[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Yoon-joo] The Korea International Trade Association (KITA) announced on the 1st that it signed a business agreement with the U.S. startup support foundation Startup Junkie at COEX in Samseong-dong to support overseas testbeds and open innovation for startups.

Startup Junkie is a foundation famously funded and supported directly by the Walton family, founders of Walmart. U.S. government agencies such as the U.S. Department of Commerce and universities like the University of Arkansas Walton College of Business also support Startup Junkie. It counts major corporations such as Walmart, FedEx, and Tyson Foods as key partners, and recently established a base in Seoul to jointly plan pilot tests for technology verification (PoC) and investment activities for domestic startups with KITA.

The business agreement ceremony was held with the attendance of about 20 officials, including Lee Dong-gi, Head of the Innovation Growth Division at KITA, and Luis Diesel, Asia Representative of Startup Junkie.

Through this agreement, the two organizations will cooperate on ▲promoting testbed projects to apply and verify domestic startup technologies at commercial facilities of Startup Junkie partner institutions such as Walmart ▲jointly implementing corporate accelerator (AC) programs ▲supporting the entry of innovative domestic startup products into distribution channels such as Walmart ▲sharing information on the startup, venture ecosystems, and open innovation status in both countries ▲sharing resources to support startups in the Asia-Pacific region.

Lee Dong-gi, Head of KITA’s Innovation Growth Division, emphasized, "Building on the success of the ‘COEX Startup Testbed,’ the first private public offering conducted domestically last year, we have expanded the testbed’s scope to Lotte Mart in Jakarta, Indonesia. Through this agreement, we will actively support making major commercial facilities of overseas conglomerates such as Walmart a proving ground for our startup technologies."