Seoul fostering 'K-beauty tech startups'… Entering the largest shopping mall in Barcelona

    LOS ANGELES, CA, September 28, 2022 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Seoul Business Agency (SBA, CEO Hyun-woo Kim), which is responsible for nurturing small and medium-sized businesses and startups in Seoul and promoting industry, announced that they are supporting the demonstration of Korean technology‧services in Barcelona for Korean beauty tech startups.

Through a public contest, three selected startups will advance to 'Westfield Glories', Barcelona's largest shopping mall with more than 150 brands. From September to November, they will demonstrate their technology and services through exhibitions and demonstrations.

'Westfield Glories' is a shopping mall located in a large square created as part of Barcelona's urban planning. It has more than 150 brand stores including fashion clothing stores, restaurants, and movie theater.

Since last year, Seoul Business Agency (SBA) has been promoting the 'Overseas Proof of Concept (PoC) support project' to make Barcelona, a world-class tourist city, a test bed for domestic startups' innovative products and a bridgehead to advance into Europe. PoC refers to the stage of verification before introducing a new technology to the existing market.

Seoul Business Agency (SBA) discovers companies with excellent technology and provides customized consulting to help them demonstrate technology and services abroad.

They supported the technology demonstration of 12 technology startups, including 3D display and mobile stamp with the Korea International Trade Association (KITA) last year. Starting this year, they will focus on K-beauty in order to export 'beauty tech' abroad. Three companies will be selected through a public contest to support overseas technology demonstrations.

The three selected companies are ▴Lulu Lab (Lumini Kiosk V2), an AI skin analysis solution company, ▴Reziena, a medical home beauty solution company, and ▴Becon, an ICT solution company that offers customized products through scalp and hair loss analysis. Lulu Lab and Reziena recommend solutions and products suitable for local people through skin measurement and diagnosis technology, Becon measures scalp/hair loss status with IoT diagnostic devices, and AI recommends optimal hair care products through solution matching. Through this global proof of concept (PoC) support project, it will provide a good opportunity for K-beauty tech companies to showcase their technology to customers in Spain and expand their business network.

Last year, which was the first year of project, 12 start-ups demonstrated their innovative technologies in 'Casa Batllo' (4 companies), which is considered a masterpiece of Spanish architect Antoni Gaudi, 'Glories '(5 companies), the largest shopping mall in Barcelona, and 'L'illa' (3 companies) the three largest shopping complex in Barcelona for a year (from '21.5 to '22.4).

Mopic demonstrated 'light field 3D display' technology that allows you to view stereoscopic images without wearing a VR device or 3D glasses. It was installed inside the Kids Zone of Glories Shopping Mall and gained interest and positive responses from visitors. Because of the positive response, it was operated for an additional extension even after the end of the support project period.

12CM, a company with mobile stamp technology, increased the value of sustainability by digitizing the ink stamping method on paper at the tapas campaign event in L'illa complex shopping mall. With recognition of their intuitive application and system technology, they are discussing commercialization with local customers.

Gaudio Lab demonstrated the technology of applying the immersive audio effect to the audio guide in connection with the façade of Gaudi's 'Casa Batllo', which is UNESCO World Heritage Site. A QR code was installed at the entrance of 'Casa Batllo' to lead tourists to see what is inside. Recently, they visited Barcelona to participate in 'MWC2022', the world's largest mobile telecommunication fair, and started discussing commercialization with a large Korean company that participated in the Casa Batllo technology demonstration event.

Meanwhile, the Seoul Business Agency signed a letter of intent (LOI) to establish exchange and cooperative relations with the city of Barcelona at the Seoul Startup Hub on the 30th (Wed) and to cooperate and discover excellent start-ups in Seoul and Barcelona and advance into the global market.

At the signing ceremony, officials from the Barcelona city government (Mr. Pau Solanilla, member of Barcelona City Council, Ms. Veronica Tan, Barcelona City Council Asia regional manager) and SBA (Seoul Business Agency CEO, Startup director), and participating startups from this and last year(12CM, Mopic, Lulu Lab, Reziena, Becon, and other) participated.

Hyun-woo Kim, CEO of Seoul Business Agency (SBA), said, "Barcelona beauty tech PoC project will be a good opportunity to promote K-beauty throughout Europe, starting with Spain, and give an opportunity for the global scale-up of domestic startups with excellent technology. Starting with this cooperation with Barcelona, we will strengthen cooperation opportunities in the areas of business ecosystem development and technology startups between the two regions."

# # #