On December 30, Samsung Electronics announced that it will be showcasing startups supported by its C-Lab incubation programme at CES 2026, which is taking place from 6–9 January in Las Vegas. The participating companies span fields including artificial intelligence, robotics, and digital health. This reflects Samsung’s broader open-innovation strategy and its efforts to connect early-stage technologies with global markets.
Samsung will operate a dedicated C-Lab exhibition space in Eureka Park at the Venetian Expo, the startup-focused zone of CES. The space is designed to help participating startups demonstrate their technologies, test market response and pursue overseas partnerships. According to Samsung, CES functions as a validation platform where technical feasibility and global scalability can be assessed in real time.
“CES provides an opportunity for C-Lab startups to verify their innovations and accelerate global growth,” said Byoung Chul Lee, vice president and head of the Creativity & Innovation Center at Samsung Electronics. He noted that the increased participation of regionally based startups this year signals the maturation of the C-Lab ecosystem beyond Seoul.
A total of 15 startups will take part in the C-Lab showcase. Eight were incubated through Samsung Electronics’ C-Lab Outside program, four through Samsung Financial C-Lab Outside, two through the internal venture track C-Lab Inside, and one through a joint program with the Daegu Creative Economy Innovation Center. Since the program’s launch in 2012, Samsung has incubated 959 projects and startups across its internal and external tracks.
Samsung has expanded C-Lab Outside since 2023 to include Daegu, Gwangju and Gyeongbuk Province, with the aim of strengthening local startup ecosystems. The program provides workspace, stage-based consulting and opportunities to collaborate with Samsung affiliates, allowing startups to scale without relocating to Seoul. To date, 40 regional startups have been incubated through this initiative.
At CES 2026, seven startups from Daegu, Gwangju and Gyeongbuk will participate, marking the largest-ever presence of regional C-Lab startups at the exhibition. Samsung said the expanded lineup reflects growing technological depth in regional innovation clusters and their readiness for global exposure.
Among the regional participants, Repla, a Gyeongbuk-based plastic recycling startup, received a CES 2026 Innovation Award for its Puri-Checker device, which analyzes plastic composition ratios. Repla CEO Seo Dong-eun said collaboration with Samsung has helped the company position its technology for international markets, adding that plastic recycling remains a global challenge with cross-border demand.
The participating regional startups include Stress Solution, which develops AI-based personalized mental care sound solutions; Deepscent, an AI-powered digital scent platform tailored to spatial environments; Elevenliter, which focuses on AI diagnostics for progressive diseases in pets; AunionAI, a web-based AI solution for automated multilingual dubbing and subtitles; Repla, which produces enzyme-purified recycled plastics; Univa, an on-device multimodal large language model solution; and 10kM.ai, an enterprise AI video production platform capable of generation, editing and monetization.
Samsung will also present two projects from its internal venture program, C-Lab Inside, which it has showcased at CES annually since 2016 to evaluate global market response. The two projects selected this year are ChronoMix, an AI-based object-centric video composition solution, and EZ Reco, a generative AI platform that provides electronics recommendations based on expert knowledge.
For the first time, startups from Samsung Financial C-Lab Outside will also exhibit at CES, reflecting the expansion of Samsung’s incubation model across its financial affiliates. The participating companies include Selectstar, which develops copyright-cleared datasets and AI evaluation platforms; Datumo, a cyber-risk modeling company; WINNING.I, which offers next-generation eKYC using combined fingerprint and facial biometrics; and Pillsang, an on-device AI solution for real-time phishing and fraud detection.
C-Lab startups collectively received 17 CES 2026 Innovation Awards, including two Best of Innovation Awards, according to the Consumer Technology Association. The Best of Innovation recipients, MangoSlab and StudioLab, both originated from C-Lab Inside before spinning off as independent startups, underscoring Samsung’s emphasis on turning internal ventures into commercially viable companies.
