Hyundai Motor Chung Mong-koo Foundation, UNDP hold Asia-Pacific impact startup demo day

The Hyundai Motor Chung Mong-koo Foundation and the UN Development Programme Seoul Policy Centre hosted a networking event and demo day for their Asia-Pacific impact startup program, Global Impactpreneur, at Ondream Society in Myeong-dong, Seoul, on Monday and Tuesday.

Global Impactpreneur identifies and nurtures social innovation startups across the Asia-Pacific region. This year, 20 teams from 10 countries — including South Korea, Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia and Cambodia — completed a three-month acceleration program, and 10 teams from five countries that passed an online investor relations screening advanced to the Seoul demo day. The participating companies presented a range of innovative solutions tied to UN Sustainable Development Goals, covering climate action, the circular economy, healthcare and digital inclusion.

On Monday, about 50 people gathered for a networking session, including the finalist companies, entrepreneurs who had previously participated in Hyundai Motor Chung Mong-koo Foundation and UNDP programs, and representatives from venture capital firms and accelerators. Participants shared their startup experiences and the challenges of running a business, and discussed potential areas of collaboration.

At Tuesday's demo day, the 10 companies pitched their businesses to investors and partner organizations and explored investment and partnership opportunities through booth exhibitions. Judges included experts from the Hyundai Motor Chung Mong-koo Foundation, the UNDP Seoul Policy Centre, and the fields of impact investment and development cooperation.

The Grand Award went to SUDrain of Cambodia, which developed a decentralized wastewater treatment system using coconut fiber-based biofilm filtration technology. The Excellence Award went to Arummi Foods of Indonesia, which developed cashew-based plant milk to improve food accessibility and boost income for smallholder farmers.

The CVC Innovation Award was shared by two South Korean companies: Seoul Labs, which developed "Super Wallet," an AI- and blockchain-based digital identity platform, and Deafnuri, which operates a sign language-based tourism platform.

A foundation official said the organization plans to keep expanding its efforts to cultivate impact entrepreneurs who contribute to solving global social problems and to build an international cooperation ecosystem, drawing on its partnership with UNDP.

Meanwhile, the Hyundai Motor Chung Mong-koo Foundation has been pursuing a range of initiatives to create social value, including opening applications in May for the inaugural cohort of CMK Campuspreneur, a program targeting university student startup teams that address social problems through creative business models. CMK Campuspreneur is a pre-startup support program the foundation established this year when it rebranded its existing H-Ondream Startup Ground initiative as CMK Impactpreneur.