86% of CES Innovation Award-winning SMEs utilize SME support programs

 The Ministry of SMEs and Startups (Minister Oh Young-joo, hereinafter referred to as the Ministry of SMEs and Startups) announced that it held a ‘ CES 2025 K- Startup Integrated Pavilion Participating Companies and Innovation Award  Winners Meeting ‘ at the Global Startup Center (GSC) in Gangnam-gu, Seoul on Tuesday, the 21st.

This symposium was held to share the achievements of companies   that won Innovation Awards at CES 2025, held in Las Vegas, USA from January 7 to January 10 (local time)  , as well as to examine global innovation technology trends presented at CES. 

   A total of  50 companies that participated in CES 2025, including  20 CES  Innovation Award winners  and companies participating in the Ministry of SMEs and Startups ’ ‘ K- Startup Integrated Pavilion’,  attended the event. Minister Oh Young-joo presided over the meeting and communicated with the CES participating companies while listening to their vivid reviews. Following the meeting,  a ‘ CES 2025  Review Seminar’ was also held to provide a venue for information  sharing and networking among the CES participating companies  . 

  Meanwhile, Minister Oh announced ahead of the meeting that according to the final tally of the additional innovation awards announced by the end of CES,  151 Korean companies had won 208 innovation awards . This is  the largest number of awards ever won by Korea and the world’s best achievement based on a country, accounting for approximately 45.4% of the total 458 innovation awards announced at CES 2025. Of these,  131 innovation awards were won by  small and medium-sized venture companies . 

Looking at the domestic innovation award-winning companies (149 companies excluding universities and other institutions) by size, there are 12 large companies, 10 medium-sized companies, and  127 small and medium-sized venture companies, with small and medium-sized venture companies accounting for 85% of all innovation award-winning companies . Of these, 110 companies, or about  86.6%, participated in SME support projects such as startup commercialization, R&D, and mother fund investment .

In addition, CTA announced 34 Best of Innovation Awards, which award companies with the most innovative technologies and products in each field, and domestic companies won 15 awards. Four  small and medium-sized venture companies,  including Sierra Base (Smart City), Ghostpass (Fintech), Suprema AI (Embedded Technology), and Poscom (Human Security), were honored with the Best of Innovation Awards, demonstrating the power of ‘K-Startups.’

  At the meeting that day, NationA CEO Yoo Su-yeon, who achieved the feat of winning two innovation awards at CES for two consecutive years (’24~’25),  introduced the award-winning products to the attendees and shared the results of their participation in CES  . 

 In addition, Jang Seung-woong, CEO of Tenminds, a sleep tech company that uses AI, shared his know-how on how to pioneer and grow overseas markets with junior entrepreneurs based on his experience of winning the CES Innovation Award a total of five times up to this year.

 At the subsequent review seminar, many companies, including Sierra Base Co., Ltd., which won the Best Innovation Award in the smart city field, and Greenetta Co., Ltd., which achieved outstanding results at CES by signing a technology development MOU with NVIDIA, attended and shared their experiences participating in CES..

  Minister Oh evaluated the results of participation in CES 2025, saying, “The performance of our venture and startup companies at CES 2025 shows the limitless potential that Korea can lead the future market.” He added, “I am proud that most of the companies that won innovation awards at this CES are companies that grew based on support projects from the Ministry of SMEs and Startups. We will continue to work to provide the driving force for ‘K-startups’ to go further.”

Editor. Hong Se-yeong