GS Pursues Future Growth with Eco-Friendly Bio Startup

Selection of Eco-friendly Bio Startups
Expectations for Commercialization of Various Biotech (BT)-based Business Models

[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Yoon-joo] GS Corporation is laying the foundation for future growth together with eco-friendly bio startups.

On the 8th, GS held a 'Start-up Camp' marking the beginning of the program with six biotech (BT) startups selected for 'The GS Challenge' at the GS Tower on Nonhyeon-ro, Gangnam-gu, Seoul.

'The GS Challenge,' aimed at discovering eco-friendly biotech startups, received applications from a total of 85 companies from January 22 to March 7. After a competitive selection process with a 14:1 ratio, six companies were finally selected. GS Group supports these startups through an acceleration program that includes early-stage nurturing and commercialization efforts in collaboration with GS Group affiliates, as well as mentoring in the bio industry and technology until the end of August. Through this process, at the 'Demo Day' scheduled for the end of August, the six companies will pitch their business model commercialization progress to domestic and international investors and GS Group officials.

At the 'Start-up Camp,' about 20 people including Hong Soon-ki, President of GS Corporation, CEOs and representatives of the six biotech startups attended. The event included introductions to GS Group and the startups. Bluepoint Partners (BPP), a tech startup accelerator, also shared advice and success stories on startup success.

Hong Soon-ki, CEO of GS Corporation, said, "Just as global companies all started as startups, we support their infinite growth potential. GS will continue to collaborate with startups and venture capital (VC) firms to pursue a win-win through open innovation between large corporations and startups."

Expectations for Commercialization of Various Biotech (BT)-Based Business Models

'The GS Challenge' is a startup acceleration program challenging sustainable management through eco-friendliness (Growth through Sustainability). It called for applications under three themes?'New Life Made by Biotechnology, Clean Environment, Healthy Future'?to discover new business models applying bio technology in areas such as ▲production and utilization of new eco-friendly materials ▲reduction, blocking, purification, and recycling of waste and pollutants ▲disease diagnosis, health care products, and solutions. A total of 85 biotech startups applied.

Among them, the six final selected startups were evenly chosen across all biotech fields: three in the new life sector, one in the clean environment sector, and two in the healthy future sector.

Additionally, the six companies proposed diverse biotech-based business models: 'JAN153 Biotech (CEO Kim Jin-cheol)' suggested an eco-friendly aerial pesticide for pine wilt disease control; 'Roots Lab (CEO Kim Myung-won)' proposed 'eco-friendly seoksepo,' a natural material replacing microplastics; 'Nutri Industry (CEO Hong Jong-joo)' suggested recycling food waste using insects; 'Cutis Bio (CEO Choi Won-woo)' proposed metabolic engineering-based functional cosmetic materials and next-generation microbiome therapeutics; and 'SpeBio (CEO Ahn Geun-sun)' proposed cell aggregate and extracellular vesicle bio-production technology.

These six startups will further concretize their business models by utilizing the advanced production facilities and research infrastructure of GS affiliates and will also pursue scale-up for full-scale commercialization going forward.