LG hosted its eighth annual open innovation festival, Superstart Day 2025, from September 17 to 18 at the LG Sciencepark in Magok, Seoul. The event, held under the theme Jump Beyond: Innovation Beyond Dimensions, served as a platform for LG to discover and foster promising startups, while showcasing advancements in future technologies.
This year’s event focused on LG’s core future growth areas, known as ABC (AI, Bio, Cleantech), and expanded to include robotics, the space industry, and cybersecurity. The festival has grown into a significant global exchange, having attracted over 30,000 visitors from 30 countries since its inception in 2018.
A total of 32 startups presented their technologies and business achievements. This included 22 newly selected companies for the 4th Superstart Incubator program, which were chosen from a competitive pool of 1,800 applicants, facing an 80-to-1 competition ratio. An additional 10 startups already collaborating with LG also shared their progress.
A significant highlight of Superstart Day 2025 was the public debut of a space demonstration project, showcasing LG’s collaboration with Unmanned Exploration Research Institute, South Korea’s only startup developing a lunar exploration rover. The companies presented a lunar rover equipped with LG’s proprietary technologies, including camera modules, battery cells, and communication antennas.
These components are slated for inclusion in the upcoming fourth and fifth launches of the Nuri rocket. LG emphasized its strategy of modifying existing mass-produced products to withstand the space environment, a move designed to reduce both development costs and time. This initiative is part of LG’s long-term goal to achieve a lunar landing by 2032.
In the field of robotics, innovative startups also took center stage. Koras Robotics introduced the world’s first all-in-one robot hand changer system, which features more than 15 types of grippers that enable a robot to handle various objects without damage. Another startup, Apla, demonstrated its advanced motion capture technology that allows robots to learn movements by watching videos in real time.
Beyond space and robotics, the event also featured notable advancements in LG’s core ABC (AI, Bio, Cleantech) focus areas. For example, Art Blood unveiled an innovative technology for producing cell-based artificial red blood cells for transfusions, while MangoBoost presented its Data Processing Unit (DPU) design technology aimed at optimizing network performance in the growing number of AI data centers. All participating startups, including the 22 newly selected for the incubator program, showcased their research and development progress to investors and ministry officials throughout the event.
Yang Seung-jin, head of the Superstart team at LG Sciencepark, stated, “Superstart will continue to foster world-changing innovations through the synergy between the startup ecosystem and LG”.
