Which Startup Won the 'King of Kings' Title at Korea's Largest Startup Competition?

Final 20 Teams Overcome 356:1 Competition in Championship
Startup League Grand Prize 'Plastal', Pre-Startup League Grand Prize 'AnyAI'

At the 'Challenge K-Startup 2020 Grand Championship' awards ceremony, Deputy Minister Kang Sung-chun is delivering a congratulatory speech.

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Cheol-hyun] A startup has emerged as the "King of Kings" in the largest-scale and highest-prize entrepreneurship competition in Korea. In the Startup League, "Plastal," and in the Preliminary Startup League, "Aniai" each won the grand prize. On the 21st, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups (Minister Park Young-sun, hereafter MSS) announced the results of the "Challenge! K-Startup 2020" King of Kings finals, including these details. This competition was held on the 20th at Layer 10 Studio in Seongsu-dong as a special event of "COMEUP 2020."

◆20 Startup Teams Advance to King of Kings Finals After Beating 356 to 1 Competition Ratio = "Challenge! K-Startup" is the largest-scale and highest-prize entrepreneurship competition in Korea that operates contests for prospective entrepreneurs and startup founders with promising startup ideas, discovering excellent startup teams and awarding prize money. Marking its 5th year this year, it expanded from last year's collaboration with the Ministry of National Defense, Ministry of Education, and Ministry of Science and ICT to include additional cooperation with the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, and the Korean Intellectual Property Office, operating as a joint competition among seven ministries, private sectors, and local governments. With the expansion of participating ministries, the number of teams recommended for the integrated finals was increased from 152 to 180 to allow more entrepreneurs to participate.

Regarding the progress, for the preliminary league, 7,112 teams applied, and until September, document screening and non-face-to-face presentation auditions were conducted to select 180 teams advancing to the integrated finals of "Challenge! K-Startup." In the finals, 60 teams were selected from the 180 finalists, and in the final round, 20 teams were chosen from those 60. As a result, 20 startup teams advanced to the King of Kings finals after overcoming a fierce competition ratio of 356 to 1.

◆Plastal and Aniai Crowned King of Kings = The King of Kings finals is a competition to determine the rankings and award winners among the 20 teams that passed through eight preliminary leagues, the finals, and the final round. The announcement proceeded with the Preliminary Startup League followed by the Startup League. As a result, Plastal was selected as the King of Kings in the Startup League, and Aniai in the Preliminary Startup League. Plastal (CEO Hong Seong-ho), which won the grand prize in the Startup League, received the Presidential Award and prize money of 300 million KRW. Their startup item is a "waterproof bonding solution for plastic and metal." Aniai (CEO Hwang Geon-pil), which won the grand prize in the Preliminary Startup League, received the Prime Minister's Award and prize money of 150 million KRW. They developed a "3D ultrasound imaging system using artificial neural networks inspired by bats."

The 20 teams advancing to this King of Kings finals will receive various follow-up supports such as exemption from written evaluations for R&D startup growth technology development and exemption from document evaluations for preliminary, early-stage, and leap packages. Participants of "Challenge! K-Startup" have generated achievements including 148.1 billion KRW in investment attraction and 30.6 billion KRW in government-supported commercialization R&D as of December last year. This year, five of the past winners were included in Forbes Leaders (Asia's 300 Under 30 Leaders), drawing attention. The "Challenge! K-Startup 2020" King of Kings finals were broadcast overseas through the MSS YouTube channel, and more detailed information can be found on the "COMEUP 2020" website.