The Ministry of SMEs and Startups is expanding the 'Government's First Demonstration and Purchase Project,' in which the government directly verifies and purchases the technologies and products of startups in new industries, to the smart city sector following robotics. The purpose is to connect demonstration opportunities with public demand for startups facing difficulties in initial market entry and securing sales channels.

On the 30th, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced that it had finally selected 28 out of 32 projects submitted by 18 organizations, including the Korea Meteorological Administration, Korea Expressway Corporation, and Busan Metropolitan City, as a result of the open call for demonstration projects in the smart city sector.

Participating startups can apply through the K-Startup portal (www.k-startup.go.kr) from July 1 to 22, and selected companies will be supported with 100 million won in funding for demonstration and collaboration, designation as an innovative product, and pilot purchasing.

In the first round of the robotics sector, five agencies including the National Police Agency, the Korea Coast Guard, and the National Heritage Administration solicited 20 collaborative projects, and 13 out of 31 applicant companies were finally selected.

Major demonstration projects include marine pollution removal using AI swarm oil recovery robots (Korea Coast Guard), AI-based automatic identification of underwater heritage by unmanned submersible (National Heritage Administration), and search for missing persons in rivers using surface drones (National Police Agency), with field demonstrations scheduled to begin in July.

Twinny Co., Ltd.’s autonomous logistics delivery robot ‘Nargo 60’ is currently being tested for inter-departmental administrative goods delivery within the Ministry of SMEs and Startups building.

Twinny Co., Ltd., which developed this robot capable of autonomously transporting up to 60kg of cargo, is a company selected for the Ministry of SMEs and Startups' 'Unicorn Bridge' project.

The 28 projects in the smart city sector included: an automatic control system for underground parking lot water barriers to prepare for weather disasters (Korea Meteorological Administration); a smart wireless relay robot for communication blind spots in tunnels and underground areas (Korea Expressway Corporation); interactive sign language AI for bus stops (Incheon Port Authority); autonomous drones for initial fire response in aging apartment complexes (Korea Housing Corporation); and AI security and safety video surveillance cameras for responding to bad weather (Busan Metropolitan City).

Approximately 30 startups will be selected to participate in the 28 projects.

Cho Kyung-won, Director General of Startup Policy at the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, stated, “Securing initial customers and opportunities for pilot testing are paramount for the market growth of startups in new industries,” adding, “We will continue to expand projects into various new industrial sectors, such as AI and climate technology, even after the Smart City initiative.”