South Korea's Ministry of Science and ICT and the Korea Telecommunication Operators Association (KTOA) held the final round of a competition on Sept. 17 to identify investment targets among adventurous and challenging AI startups and selected 8 award-winning companies, the ministry said on Thursday.

The competition was designed to provide AI startups struggling with early-stage funding with opportunities to attract investment and expand their businesses. Entries were evaluated mainly on technological excellence, growth potential and originality of business models.

A total of 268 companies applied, a competition rate of 33.5 to 1. The number of applicants rose about threefold from 91 companies last year. Eight companies that passed the preliminary round competed in the final round.

The grand prize, the deputy prime minister and science minister's award, went to Stillcut for developing Stillcut, a solution that prevents tampering of AI-generated content and determines authenticity. The top excellence award went to Quantum Hitec, which has AI platform technology that predicts remaining battery life without disassembly. Motif Drive, which developed AI-based autonomous driving software, received an excellence award.

Five other finalists — MetaCloud, All in Carbon, Jiro, CrossHub and Planby Technologies — received encouragement awards.

The ministry and KTOA will provide the 8 finalists with total prize money of 80,000,000 won, along with opportunities to attract investment based on the KIF (Korea IT Fund).

This year, it will also newly create an "AI Venture Fund" based on a KIF fund of funds to focus investment on award-winning companies and early-stage firms less than 3 years old. The top 3 companies will also be offered space at Venturium, a startup-only office space operated by KTOA, and chances to participate in overseas investor relations events.

Park Tae-wan (박태완), director general for telecommunications industry policy at the ministry, said, "I hope this competition will serve as a stepping stone for AI startups to make the next leap forward, and we will continue to expand growth opportunities in cooperation with the private sector."