[StartupRecipe] NextRise 2026 Ends, But There’s More to See

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NextRise 2026 Ends, But There’s More to See

NextRise, billing itself as Asia’s largest startup fair, wrapped up its run. Beyond the main conference and startup exhibition, partner organizations — global companies, public institutions, universities, and large corporations — packed the event with side programs.

Global AI companies showed up in force this year, running hackathons and workshops for builders. Anthropic teamed up with Replit and Korea Investment Partners for the Push to Prod AI Hackathon. OpenAI held its Build with OpenAI workshop, where participants planned and built out their own services on the spot. Nvidia hosted an Inception meetup for its startup accelerator program, featuring presentations from GTC Taipei alumni A.Robot and Coxwave, along with VC reverse pitching. Notion ran a showcase with five startups — Solution Link, Gongyeosa, Mosmos, Heyground, and DevD — sharing how they used the platform to streamline content operations, contract management, and PMS workflows.

Host organization KDB (Korea Development Bank) staged a demo day for its startup accelerator program, KDB NextONE. Fifteen teams from the 12th cohort presented, including Guardian AI, Nuvinda, and Lifeplex Science, while fifteen companies from the Busan 4th cohort — among them New Dermare, Locus Korea, Livit, Bind, Storege, and Irinics — took the stage as well. A pitching session co-hosted with the ASEAN-Korea Centre introduced promising ASEAN startups, including marine biotech firm BioWorks, robotics platform Quickbot Technologies, and AI satellite startup Leaf AI.

The Korea Creative Content Agency (KOCCA) set up its own pitching booth on-site and ran a two-day relay demo day, supporting pitches from 50 startups spanning AI, fintech, ICT, bio, content, energy, defense, and factory tech. KAIST held the first-half demo day for its student startup competition, E5 KAIST.

Venture industry associations and startup support bodies also held key events during NextRise week, with most centered on IR-based meetups and networking. The Korea Venture Business Association ran a Pre-Startup Launching Day aimed at networking between senior and junior startups in the early-stage startup package. The Korea Venture Capital Association held its first Post-TIPS TIPS Meetup and the first Next Demo Day, creating opportunities for TIPS-selected companies to pursue follow-on funding and meet investors. The Seoul Business Agency hosted a Seoul Open Innovation Launching Day, introducing new open innovation programs from LG H&H, Amorepacific, and InBody, and connecting startups with large corporations. The Korea PropTech Association ran a meetup sharing AI use cases and the latest industry trends in proptech. JETRO, Japan’s counterpart to KOTRA, supported an exchange session linking Korean startups with three Japanese conglomerates.

The Korea Institute of Startup and Entrepreneurship Development held DIS Global IR in Seoul, connecting global VCs with startups and supporting presentations from ten deep tech startups including Diffusion AI, SLZ, MangoBoost, and Repla. Separately, the United Korean Founders (UKF), a network supporting Korean-American entrepreneurs, held its launch ceremony at NextRise, marking the start of its activities.

#MORE NEWS

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