BAT Discovers ESG Innovation Partners Through 'Open Innovation Hackathon'

Lee Deokho, CEO of H-Cube, is giving a presentation at the 'BAT Open Innovation Hackathon.' (Photo by BAT Korea)

[Asia Economy Reporter Seungjin Lee] BAT Korea announced on the 2nd that it has successfully concluded the ‘BAT Open Innovation Hackathon’ and discovered startup partners to jointly promote smart innovation in the production sector.

The ‘BAT Open Innovation Hackathon’ was hosted by N15, the largest startup accelerator in Korea, and the Gyeongnam Creative Economy Innovation Center to foster future talent through supporting the startup ecosystem and to lay the foundation for innovative growth under BAT’s ESG (Environment, Social, Governance) management initiative ‘A Better Tomorrow.’

Ten teams selected through document screening presented progressive innovative ideas after mentoring by startup experts during the three-day online hackathon.

The startup ‘HCube,’ which was finally selected in the PoC (Proof of Concept) field, proposed productivity improvement ideas for BAT Sacheon Plant in the predictive maintenance of equipment by utilizing LabVIEW and Python-based software development, machine learning systems, and control and measurement technologies.

The startup ‘K-IoT,’ selected in the sustainable innovation field, presented a new smart factory ESG strategy that inspects foreign substances in the cigarette manufacturing process through object recognition technology applying deep learning.

The winning teams each received a prize of 5 million KRW, and opportunities for follow-up collaboration projects will be provided after solution feasibility verification procedures. The remaining participating teams will receive follow-up support for commercialization, product development, and investment linkage through participation in an acceleration program supported by the Gyeongnam Creative Economy Innovation Center, with funding up to 100 million KRW.

Meanwhile, during the hackathon period, special mentoring lectures sharing success stories of the audio AI startup ‘Cochlear.ai’ and the jewelry tech startup ‘Visual’ were held, and executives from BAT Korea’s Sacheon Plant directly participated in the hackathon process to enhance the feasibility of ideas.

Kang Seungho, Managing Director of BAT Sacheon Plant, said, “In addition to the teams finally selected as partners, many startups with feasible and high-quality ideas participated, making the selection process very competitive,” and added, “We plan to closely cooperate with the selected startup partners to further enhance BAT manufacturing plants’ leadership and competitiveness within the group through more innovative solutions.”