Swiss-Korean Innovation Week 2019

Over the years, Lift has been growing a network of partners in Asia enabling us to organize various events in China, India and especially in Korea with 3 editions of the Lift Asia conference from 2007 to 2009, the Swiss-Korean Innovation Night in 2012, Urban Entrepreneurs Seoul in 2016 and the Lift:Lab Seoul in 2018.

Lift was thrilled to be back once again in Seoul during the Swiss-Korean Innovation Week on May 22-23, 2019 with two events: Lift:Lab Seoul and a Swiss-Korean Startup Workshop.

During the Swiss-Korean Innovation Week 2019 organized by the Science & Technology Office Seoul, experts from Switzerland and Korea active in the academic and industrial worlds were invited to bring visions and examples for a “smart living” through the convergence of technologies in services, which make our cities more sustainable.

Swiss-Korean Startup Workshop

The Swiss-Korean startup workshop objectives were to help the entrepreneurs to understand the Korean and Swiss market’s potential, identify the various R&D and strategic partners models, discover the investment landscape in Korea and meet with investors and potential partners.

Organized in the new building of the Swiss Embassy, the workshop was facilitated by Lift CEO Abir Oreibi - also an advisor for Innosuisse, the Swiss Innovation Agency - and brought together 10 startups. The Swiss startup delegation was composed of 3 startups from Innovaud lead by Didier Schwartz:

Tomas Sluka from Creal3D - High image quality light-field for Virtual Reality
Wiktor Bourée from Technis - Smart flooring as a service
Madeline Trousseau from the scale-up GaitUp - Combining sensors, algorithms, and biomechanics to provide world-leading motion analysis

On the other side, the Korean startup delegation was composed of:

GenesisLab - Emotion recognition technology through micro expression
Deepixel - Visual intelligence company developing a natural 3D interface for mobile VR
Impressivo - Next-generation input solution for wearables and IoT devices
bitsensing Inc. - Develops radar for various applications to improve safety and convenience in people’s daily life
GreenS Systems Co. - Connected solution monitoring Real-time freshness, Product ID, Logistics info based on smart sensor & product control system.
FATOS - Develops global maps and navigation solution
AWAIR - smart devices that help track and improve indoor air quality
Experts and mentors present to work with the entrepreneurs were also coming from Korea and Switzerland and representing a wide range of sectors and expertise such as Impact Hub Zürich, the Swiss Railroad and Real Estate SBB and the world’s leading manufacturer of digital microsensors and systems Sensirion. From the Korean side, there were representatives from the venture capital sector and incubators such as SparkLabs, WeWork Labs, D.Camp Banks Foundation for Young Entrepreneurs, LB Investment, and the Swiss Business Hub Korea.

After an intense and highly interactive morning, the participants visited the LG science park in the afternoon to discover LG latest technologies and present their projects to LG’s team.

Lift:Lab Seoul 2019

About Lift:Lab Seoul

The 2019 Lift:Lab Seoul was a one-day creativity sprint organized on May 23, 2019 offering an opportunity for participants to collaborate towards identifying new ideas, designs or ventures leveraging technology to serve challenges of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).

Once again we teamed up with Jean-Henry Morin from the University of Geneva, Olivier Mouroux from Asiance, Serena Cangiano from SUPSI and Allessandra Apicella, our magnificent host, from Science and Technology Office Seoul.

Projects in the spotlight

We welcomed over 60 participants for a full day of creativity and innovation and the youngest participant was only 9 years old! Among the 6 projects that were developed during the day 3 were rewarded by the jury:

1. PlasticLess a gaming solution to support the reduction of plastic usage.
2. Solutinder a service platform to support people with special needs by connecting them with a community of solvers and makers.
2. 2ndLife a platform meant to enable people to have a positive impact on society after retirement by matching interests and abilities with real-life society needs.

To conclude the day, all the participants joined the ‘Global Impact Night’, co-organized with Root Impact in a fantastic location on the rooftop of Heyground. Changemakers from Switzerland and Korea had flash presentations about sustainability cases based on innovative technologies and enjoyed a relaxed networking moment.

Lift:Lab Seoul in Video