The Korea Creative Content Agency (KOCCA) held its 11th annual Startup:CON 2025 event from September 25-26 at Peaches Dowon in Seoul’s Seongsu-dong district.
The two-day conference brought together domestic and international startups, global leading companies, and investors to diagnose the current state of the content industry and explore future strategies.
This year’s event operated under the theme Content x Everything, Beyond Imagination, focusing on key topics including the convergence of artificial intelligence and the content industry, fandom strategies, overseas expansion, startup scaling, and investment attraction. The comprehensive program featured conferences with keynote presentations, workshops, one-on-one corporate consultations, and the signature startup pitch competition Battle Field.
The conference opened with discussions on “The Future of Content Industry Revolutionized by Generative AI and Opportunities for Startups.” On the first day, Peter Danenberg, Senior Software Engineer at Google DeepMind, delivered the keynote address, while NVIDIA’s Product Leader Kirit Thadaka presented strategies for business differentiation based on synthetic data in the era of content personalization.
The second day featured music industry experts taking center stage. Former Spotify Chief Economist Will Page, Mobilium Global CEO Ralph Simon, and singer Tiger JK engaged in discussions about AI technology innovation, creator rights protection, and the future direction of the music industry. Actor Lee Je-hoon, known as an early investor in Market Kurly, participated in a special dialogue session to share his entrepreneurship experience and perspective as a startup investor.
Leading domestic AI companies designated as national representatives participated in the event, including Upstage, NC AI, and semiconductor innovation leader Rebellions. These companies provided insights on AI’s impact on the content industry, startup response strategies, and overseas expansion approaches.
Entertainment companies SAMG Entertainment and MBC, along with international investors, also took the stage to share strategies for content intellectual property expansion, AI-powered marketing efficiency, overseas market entry, and investment attraction.
The highlight “Battle Field” startup pitch competition featured seven finalists competing for a total prize pool of KRW 100 million. Parastar Entertainment claimed the grand prize for presenting the first hearing-impaired idol created through AI voice technology. The excellence award went to Adova for their AI creator content solutions, while the merit award was presented to Studio Metakey for their AI production solutions.
Prize distribution included KRW 50 million for the grand prize winner, KRW 30 million for the excellence award recipient, and KRW 20 million for the merit award winner. High Strange received the LG U+ special award, earning KRW 10 million.
