GIST lab startups test their tech in US market

A technology startup program that puts lab-developed innovations to the test in domestic and overseas markets is now in full swing.

The Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST) announced Friday that its Center for Startup Innovation has been running a phased startup education program under the 2026 Public Technology-Based Market-Linked Startup Exploration Support Project, known as TeX-Corps, to validate the commercial potential of laboratory technologies in real markets.

GIST selected nine "laboratory startup exploration teams" this year, each preparing to launch a business based on their research findings. Starting in April, the teams went through foundational training and expert mentoring before taking part in domestic and overseas field programs in July, where they met directly with potential customers to assess technology demand and commercialization prospects.

TeX-Corps is a project overseen by the Ministry of Science and ICT and administered by COMPA, the commercialization arm of the Korea Institute of Science and Technology Evaluation and Planning. Its goal is to validate publicly funded research from universities and government-funded research institutes in real markets and channel that work into actual lab-based startups.

Fourteen laboratory startup innovation centers operate nationwide, and GIST runs the one covering the Honam region. From 2026 through 2030, GIST will invest 7.5 billion won ($5.38 million) over five years to support regional lab startups.

The program's core philosophy marks a departure from the conventional approach of building technology first and then searching for customers. Instead, teams begin by confirming whether real customers actually need the technology or product in question.

The exploration teams studied business model development, customer discovery and interview methodology, then used expert mentoring to analyze market demand in concrete terms. They were subsequently divided into domestic and overseas tracks based on their target commercialization markets and went out to meet potential customers directly.

Three GIST teams took part in the domestic track. Following group sessions in Daejeon and remote training, they conducted interviews with potential customers and industry stakeholders. Based on the market needs identified through that process, the teams revised and refined their target customers and business models — and some went further, pivoting to change the direction of their ventures entirely.

Six teams from GIST's Honam-region laboratory startup innovation center took part in the overseas track, spending three weeks conducting market validation in the United States with UC Berkeley as their base.

Working across San Francisco and the Berkeley area, the teams met directly with potential customers in both business-to-business and business-to-consumer sectors, completing 289 interviews in total. They used insights gathered on local customer needs and market characteristics, along with expert feedback, to sharpen their business models and US market entry strategies.

Having completed market validation, all nine exploration teams will now move into the next phase: startup incubation. GIST plans to support prototype development and expert mentoring based on the customer interview and market validation results, with the aim of helping the teams launch actual businesses.

Kim Jae-gwan, director of GIST's Center for Startup Innovation, said the program had been a meaningful process of validating lab-developed technologies from a domestic and international market perspective and refining business models based on real customer feedback. "We will continue to strengthen our full-cycle startup support system, covering market validation, startup education, expert mentoring and investment linkage," he said.