LG Electronics Launches In-House Venture Program 'Studio341'

Inheritance of the Spirit of Challenge at the Founding of Geumseongsa

LG Electronics will embark on discovering and nurturing in-house ventures that inherit the challenging and innovative spirit from the founding days of Geumseongsa.

LG Electronics announced on the 30th that it will recruit applicants for the in-house venture program 'Studio341' from the 1st to the 23rd of next month. 'Studio341' is named after 341 Yeonji-dong, Busanjin-gu, Busan, where Geumseongsa, the predecessor of LG Electronics, was first established. Any domestic employees with creative ideas that can provide new value to customers in various promising future industries such as AI, smart home, digital healthcare, robotics, and metaverse can apply.

Photo by Yonhap News

To respond swiftly to rapidly changing trends, LG Electronics has significantly innovated the selection and nurturing process for in-house ventures. The selection and nurturing period, which lasted more than a year, will be shortened to about half compared to previous years. Idea and capability verification and nurturing will be conducted simultaneously, with 12 teams selected in the first round in August, and after internal IR and other evaluations, the final 5 teams qualified for spin-off will be decided in November.

To this end, LG Electronics has partnered with Bluepoint Partners, an external startup acceleration specialist. Bluepoint Partners will collaborate with LG Electronics from the initial selection stage to verify the market suitability of the in-house ventures and closely nurture them for successful commercialization.

The members of the final 5 selected teams will be separated from their current duties and will be able to focus solely on in-house venture work at a separate external office. For teams that decide to spin off, LG Electronics and Bluepoint Partners will jointly provide up to 400 million KRW in startup funds per team.

Lee Samsu, Vice President and CSO of LG Electronics, said, "Through successful in-house venture nurturing, we will provide employees with opportunities for challenge and growth, and collaborate with in-house ventures in new business areas to deliver the best, differentiated, and new customer experiences to our customers."