Ubergizmo’s Best of Korea-US Startup Summit

Ubergizmo was invited to be a jury member of the World Media Awards of the Korea-U.S. Startup Summit (aka, Korea-US SMEs go TOGETHER) innovation occasion held in New York Metropolis on September 20 and 21, 2022, and we obliged. For an summary of the occasion, learn our earlier submit.

After speaking to greater than 20 firms at varied pavilions and evaluating their merchandise and applied sciences, we’ve nominated 5 firms whose merchandise resonate with us. Right here they’re beneath, in reverse order:

#5 Lawfully

Lawfully is a service that helps hopeful US immigrants observe their circumstances with the US Immigration Providers. CEO Joon Ahn leads the corporate, and one in all its co-founders is an NYC immigration lawyer.

Having gone by means of the visa, inexperienced card, and US Citizenship course of, I might have an knowledgeable view of their product. Lawfully makes use of the most recent authorities information feeds and processes to offer potential immigrants a worldwide perspective that’s up to date every day, generally a number of instances.

For instance, it’s doable to know if the precise immigration heart wherein an individual’s file is making regular progress by monitoring the variety of circumstances processed every day. By analyzing the successes and rejected circumstances, Lawfully may spot particular ache factors and lift consciousness to customers as they file their functions. That might save months by avoiding a re-submission, for instance.

The fundamental service is free, however there are premium options, and extra correct information customers will pay for. There’s additionally the potential for asking inquiries to immigration attorneys and get a reply in minutes. The attorneys decide the payment by slices of 15mn. From what we are able to inform, costs within the vary of $45-$65 are affordable for this service. Lawfully pockets a small payment because the intermediate.

Total, I might have used this if it existed again then to make sure that issues had been transferring and that the knowledge I submitted didn’t want further warning.

#4 Teuida Inc

Teuida is a Korean-learning app for English or Vietnamese audio system. The app takes a special strategy by specializing in real-world conditions the place you’ll be able to perceive the context and vocabulary, and grammar.

That is a wonderful technique of studying languages, for my part. I Communicate three languages (English, French, and Vietnamese), and this system seems to be fairly conducive to quick and sturdy studying, for my part. That’s in stark distinction with different strategies I’ve been uncovered to, particularly the educational fashion we’ve discovered at college.

Based mostly on their information, Teuida observed that greater than 90% of their customers are ladies (teenagers to younger adults) studying Korean as a result of they comply with KPOP artists or TV Present actors. They’ve added interactions primarily based on these matters and universes that may present further incentive and enjoyable to their person base.

Teuida CEO Ji Woong Jang talked about that nearly everybody within the firm speaks a couple of language, and I can’t consider a greater strategy to relate to their prospects.

#3 POEN

POEN stands for POsitive Vitality and is a startup centered on re-purposing used battery packs. As such, they’re forward of the incoming wave of used batteries, which I about to hit the world as EV skyrocket in reputation.

Battery recycling is a difficult downside and an afterthought for a lot of the business and the overall discourse round going “all-electric.” Nonetheless, it’s one of the essential challenges to deal with if we wish to make that inexperienced future occur.

POEN goals to rebuild new battery packs by re-using particular person cells when doable and re-grouping them collectively into a brand new pack. They work with several types of cells and have developed a failure trigger evaluation and inspection methodology that permits them to identify cells that may be reused.

In some circumstances, it’s doable to reconstruct a battery pack match for an electrical car (EV), which is the best choice. Different instances, the cells will be re-assembled into packs destined to less-demanding functions comparable to energy banks or e-bikes.

CEO Seong-Jin Choi talked about that if the batteries are usually not usable, POEN can discharge them with a self-developed system and course of the uncooked supplies to recuperate the essential components to supply the “Black powder,” which is crucial to Lithium-Ion batteries.

#2 Mycell

Mycel is an organization that makes use of mushrooms’ mycelium (the foundation construction) as its base part to supply synthetic leather-based and even meals merchandise. The thought got here from Mycel CEO Sungjin Sah and has yielded an impressively shut replica of leather-based.

Even upon shut inspection and contact, it’s tough to inform if it’s real leather-based since Mycel can reproduce the feel and appear of real leather-based and its pure sturdiness. In line with the corporate, the Mycel leather-based efficiency is comparable nearly to pure leather-based.

Since leather-based has fallen out of grace due to modifications in company practices and its excessive carbon footprint, a product of this high quality satisfies high-end manufacturers in search of higher ESG scores with out compromising the standard.

As for the meals facet, Mycel factors out that it might produce a pure ingredient that may add texture to a plethora of plant-based meat merchandise. Nonetheless, whereas the market is probably bigger, there’s a have to customise the mycelium product for every area/tradition. That could be a well-known problem, and firms like Coca-cola or McDonals adapt their merchandise on a regional foundation.

#1 Greenwhale World

Greenwhale international has impressed us with a bio-degradable,non-toxic, plastic materials that appears and feels identical to our digital devices’ common plastic (one might even eat it). Nonetheless, their bio-degradable product will fully disappear after a few years, whereas plastic would possibly keep round and stay poisonous for hundreds of years.

Greenwhale’s bio-plastic shouldn’t be solely better-looking than any competitor we’ve seen, it’s also cheaper to supply, a major benefit in an business the place prices drive many selections. Whereas their product stays 1.5X costlier than polluting plastics, it’s as much as 2X extra inexpensive than bio-degradable options.

And identical to common plastics, Greenwhale’s bio-plastic is delivered in pellets, and there are solely minor tweaks to the manufacturing line to make use of it.

That mentioned, Greenwhale founders Jiyoung Hwang and Taekyun Yoon word this product is natural, so if uncovered to fixed moisture, some decay would possibly seem, not like polluting plastic. That mentioned, the instant objective is to interchange one-time-use plastic comparable to plastic baggage, utensils and different merchandise with brief life spans.

Filed in Occasions. Learn extra about Innovation, Korea, New York Metropolis and Startups.