Five major institutes of science and technology (KAIST, GIST, DGIST, UNIST, POSTECH) hold annual joint startup competitions among promising startups from each university to strength the solidarity of startups and propel competition. This year was the 7^th competition, and the competition has produced many startup teams so far. Let’s take a look at the 2020 X-IST Startups Competition!

Each university selected 2 promising startup teams to participate in the X-IST competition final. This year’s preliminary was conducted online due to COVID-19. KAIST selected ‘Aldaver’ and ‘Spidercore’, finalist teams from a lab research-based startup program E*5 LabStartup.

On December 4, 10 teams selected through preliminaries from each university competed against each other through a mock investment pitching method. The presenting teams and evaluation committee were present at the site, and there were about 200 participants watching online. Each team had 10 minutes for the presentation, which was followed by a 10-minute Q&A session. 5 external experts (investors and startup experts) recommended by each university evaluated the business feasibility and excellence of participating teams.

After the presentation, the results of the competition were tallied and there was an award ceremony at the site. Team ‘Aldaver’ from KAIST presented about ‘Developing the next generation artificial cadaver technology using functional hydrogel’and won the grand prize. Aldaver received a prize of 5 million won and an award from the Ministry of Science and ICT. 2 teams received the awards of excellence, and 2 teams received the awards of encouragement. There were teams who didn’t receive awards, but teams learned a lot from other teams and recognized them as competitors in good faith.

Which teams will be competing in the future? We look forward to next year!