Twelve Teams Selected for Innovative Ideas from Employees
Discovering Startups in AI, Mobility, and Robotics
LG Electronics is actively supporting its employees in their pursuit of challenges and change. With the goal of creating value that exceeds customer expectations, the company is backing the process by which employees’ ideas grow into new businesses.
On July 17, LG Electronics announced that it had completed the selection of 12 teams to participate in the second season of its startup incubation program, 'Studio341.' Over the past month, the company held an idea contest for its domestic employees, followed by a review by Bluepoint Partners, an external company specializing in startup acceleration. The internal competition was intense, with a ratio of 11.8 to 1, reflecting the high level of interest.
LG Electronics has selected innovative ideas and started nurturing them through the second season of its startup incubation program 'Studio341.' The photo shows a startup selected in the first season last year conducting a demo day. Photo by LG Electronics
The selected teams’ ideas are mainly focused on artificial intelligence (AI), clean tech, mobility, and robotics. Examples include an AI-based intellectual property (IP) distribution platform, high-capacity battery thermal management materials and solutions for electric vehicles and energy storage systems (ESS), and a circular clothing platform aimed at solving the problem of textile waste.
LG Electronics plans to provide close support so that these innovative ideas can be commercialized, and by October, will select up to five teams with the highest potential for commercialization. The final teams will be provided with separate workspaces outside the company and will be separated from their regular duties, allowing them to focus on business development. After a planned investor review (demo day) early next year, LG Electronics and Bluepoint Partners will jointly provide up to 400 million KRW in startup funding per team for those that successfully spin off as independent companies.
Even after these startups spin off, LG Electronics will offer follow-up management programs to help stabilize their businesses. In particular, the company will support synergies with its new business areas, such as AI home, AI-based automation solutions, mobility, media content, and wellness.
'Studio341' is a program designed to discover and nurture startups that inherit the 'DNA of challenge and change' from the founding of LG Electronics’ predecessor, Goldstar. The name was inspired by the first address of Goldstar, 341 Yeonji-dong, Busanjin-gu, Busan. In the first season, which ran until last year, five startups?Sinsungo, X-Up, Pound Object, Maskit, and QCumbers?successfully spun off and are now independently developing their businesses. Within just one year, these companies have seen their average corporate value recognized at more than five times their initial valuation, demonstrating rapid growth based on the businesses developed through Studio341.
LG Electronics has selected innovative ideas and started nurturing them through the second season of the startup incubation program 'Studio341.' The photo shows a startup selected in the first season last year conducting a demo day. Photo by LG Electronics
This year, LG Electronics has expanded the 'Studio341' program to include external startups. In collaboration with the Korea Institute of Startup & Entrepreneurship Development, under the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, the company is supporting business development in areas such as digital content compatible with webOS?which is installed on more than 200 million devices worldwide?and wellness solutions in sleep, nutrition, and mental care that can be integrated with 'LG ThinQ,' which has over 100 million users. Through the 'Startup Leap Package' program, 13 external startups have been selected and will receive support for commercialization.
Kang Sungjin, Head of Business Planning under the Chief Strategy Officer (CSO) at LG Electronics, stated, "We will carry on LG Electronics’ DNA of challenge and change," and added, "By effectively nurturing in-house ventures through a venture-style approach and building strong partnerships with external startups, we aim to contribute to activating the ecosystem."
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