Samsung starts contest to encourage local start-ups

Samsung Electronics has kicked off a contest aimed at improving the start-up ecosystem in Korea, the electronics giant announced Thursday.

C-Lab Outside is a start-up support program dedicated to encouraging start-up culture. It’s based on the company’s internal start-up program C-Lab, which the company has run for the past seven years.

Since 2012, Samsung has been operating C-Lab, an in-house start-up program, hoping to elicit revolutionary ideas from its employees and spread gospel of a creative corporate culture.

Any start-up with innovative ideas or technologies with potential can apply for the outsider contest. Finalists can receive up to 100 million won ($89,700) per team over a year. They will be able to move into the firm’s Seoul R&D campus. The winners will also get to enroll in an incubation program that fosters start-ups’ growth.

Other perks that could be granted to winners include a chance to collaborate with Samsung Electronics and participate in international IT exhibitions like the Consumer Electronics Show and Mobile World Congress.

DoBrain, an artificial intelligence- (AI) based educational solution for children, is a former C-Lab member start-up that has launched a test service in Cambodia in collaboration with Samsung.

“We hope revolutionary and promising start-ups actively apply for the contest,” said a spokesperson for Samsung Electronics. “We will contribute to bolstering the domestic start-up ecosystem.”

The sign-up period for the contest will continue until Sept. 11 on Samsung Electronics’ C-Lab Outside website.

BY JIN MIN-JI [jin.minji@joongang.co.kr]