LG Uplus (032640) announced on January 18 that it will introduce Korean artificial intelligence startups with competitive technologies to the global market at MWC26, to be held in Barcelona, Spain next month.
The 10 AI startups supported by LG Uplus are Aim Intelligence, Inhanse, OptAI, CypherData, FairyTech, ICTK, 42Maru, IHFB, Turing, and Grobi. They will participate in "4YFN (4 Years From Now)," a side event of MWC. 4YFN is a program that discovers approximately 1,000 startups with the potential to become global companies capable of setting up exhibition booths at the main MWC event within four years, supporting their networking and entrepreneurship.
The 10 companies plan to hold meetings with global corporations and investors at the MWC26 venue to discuss technology cooperation and business partnership opportunities. LG Uplus will cover airfare, accommodation, and booth rental fees to enable the startups to focus on participating in the 4YFN Awards and meetings with global partners.
LG Uplus has operated the "Shift" program, which annually selects promising AI startups and provides technology and business cooperation as well as investment support, aimed at creating a mutually beneficial ecosystem with AI startups.
Five of the startups participating in 4YFN have been collaborating with LG Uplus since last year through Shift in areas including security, ixi-O, and small language models (sLLM). Among them, Aim Intelligence, Inhanse, and OptAI are finalists for the "4YFN Awards Top 20," which selects the best companies among participating startups.
LG Uplus plans to continuously expand support for startups' global expansion through the Shift program. The company is also reviewing plans to conduct joint programs with global partners centered on Shift and establish joint funds with major partners and cooperative institutions to support innovative startups and create an open innovation investment ecosystem.
"It is meaningful to introduce Korean AI startups to the global stage and create touchpoints that can lead to actual business opportunities," said Kim Sung-mook, Vice President of Investment and Partnerships at LG Uplus. "We will build a cooperation model that enables us to grow together with promising startups."