| Korea International Trade Association (KITA) Senior Executive Managing Director Shin Seung-kwan delivers a congratulatory speech during the signing of a memorandum of understanding to nurture startups at KITA's headquarters in southern Seoul, Friday. Courtesy of KITA |
By Kim Jae-heun
BMW Group Korea has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Korea International Trade Association (KITA), the Center for Creative Economy and Innovation (CCEI) in Gyeonggi Province and FuturePlay, to discover promising startups here and promote the “BMW Testbed Project” together.
The four parties will utilize BMW's “Startup Garage” program to discover and foster new startups, provide them with opportunities for technology verification by CCEI and help them to advance in overseas markets. FuturePlay will give consultations about the startups' business value.
BMW will be receiving applications to participate in this project until August and those who are selected will go through the technology verification process from September to November. The German automaker will announce five final winners in early November, and they will become the business partners of BMW here.
BMW is currently running the program in five countries around the world: Germany, China, Israel, the United States and Korea.
In Korea, Seoul Robotics is conducting a joint study with the German automaker to develop an infrastructure system that realizes smart solutions with BMW's production plant.