LG NOVA hosts Innovation Festival in US

LG Electronics Inc. 's North American Innovation Center (LG NOVA) said on Monday that it held an Innovation Festival last Wednesday and Thursday at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco.

LG NOVA was established at the end of 2020 to discover new business models and collaborate with global startups to prepare for the future from a company-wide perspective.

Since 2021, it has hosted the Innovation Festival annually to discover global startups to collaborate with in future industries. The event serves as a networking platform for startup representatives, investors, and entrepreneurs.

This year’s Innovation Festival, themed "Lighting the Halo of Innovation," focused on finding innovative startups in future industries such as artificial intelligence (AI), cleantech, and healthcare.

This year, LG Chem Ltd. also participated in identifying global startups offering sustainable solutions in the life sciences field.

As part of the event, a startup pitch competition was held where 10 pre-selected startups presented their business ideas in front of judges and an audience.

The winning startup will receive prize money, marketing support from LG NOVA, opportunities for collaboration with LG affiliates, and potential investments from global investors.

Additionally, moving away from the traditional conference format, various interactive programs were prepared under the theme "Conversations that Connect and Inspire," allowing for engagement between speakers and the audience.

Norman Winarsky, founder of SRI Ventures and developer of Apple's AI voice assistant Siri, delivered a keynote speech on "How to Change the World through Innovation Ventures."

There was also a tech exhibition section showcasing the technologies of startups selected from the "Mission for the Future" competition, which is currently collaborating with LG NOVA to drive innovation in future industries.

These startups included DeepBrain AI, which provides AI-based avatar generation and chatbot integration solutions, and C. Light Technologies, Inc., which developed a retinal tracker used to monitor degenerative neurological diseases.

Write to Jeong-Soo Hwang at hjs@hankyung.com