KOTRA and 3 Other Agencies Support Global Partnerships and Investment Attraction for K-Innovation Companies
9 Innovation Companies Pitch to Over 50 Global Investors and VCs including Nestle and Renfe
Showcasing AI-based Automation, Commerce, and Security Solutions; Multiple Companies Nominated for MWC Innovation Awards

While Mobile World Congress (MWC), considered one of the world's two major ICT exhibitions along with CES and the world's largest mobile communications exhibition, is being held in Barcelona, Spain from March 2 to 5, K-innovation companies showcased their technological prowess.

This year's MWC, which advocates for "Beyond Smartphones to an AI and Robot-based Hyper-connected Era," drew approximately 2,900 exhibiting companies and over 100,000 visitors from 205 countries. There were about 180 Korean exhibiting companies, of which 131 participated in the Integrated Korea Pavilion, 7 were large corporations such as SKT, KT, and LG Uplus, and 41 were other organizations or individual participating companies. According to the exhibition organizer, MWC is specialized for B2B transactions, as the proportion of executive-level visitors with decision-making authority is as high as 51 percent.

Under the theme of "The IQ Era," this MWC focused on the global technology and industrial ecosystem being newly reorganized around Artificial Intelligence (AI). Compared to the past when AI was treated alongside 5G/6G and advanced networks, it has now emerged at the forefront as a theme penetrating the entire MWC.

On March 3 (local time), the second day of the exhibition, four organizations, including the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) and the Korea Information and Communication Technology Industry Association (KICTA), jointly held "K-Innovation Day @ Barcelona" on the stage within the Korea Pavilion to support global partnerships and investment attraction through IR pitching by K-innovation companies.

In the IR, while about 100 global investors and Venture Capital (VC)/Corporate Venture Capital (CVC) invited by KOTRA, such as Qualcomm, Nestle, Renfe, and Indra, looked on, 9 K-innovation companies related to AI, semiconductors, wireless communications, and security participated in pitching. Half of them, 5 companies, were AI-based technology companies. Interest and follow-up consultations continued for companies such as "Langcode (AI-based task automation platform)," "DEEPX (Neural Processing Unit (NPU) for AI)," "WIPLAT (AI-based intelligent leak management system)," and "Miliwave (Wireless communication solution for robots)."

Several Korean companies were also nominated for the Innovation Awards in two categories scheduled to be announced during the MWC period. In the Global Mobile (Glomo) Awards, often referred to as the Oscars of the ICT sector, where award nominees are announced sequentially during MWC, N-Open (Biometric composite authentication solution), which participated in the KOTRA Korea Pavilion, was nominated for the top prize in the Digital Tech category.

Kang Kyung-sung, CEO of KOTRA, said, "With global companies' interest in K-innovation companies in the fields of semiconductors, robots, and AI continuing, advanced industry exhibitions such as CES and MWC are useful platforms for the globalization of our advanced company ecosystem," adding, "We will systematically support our innovation companies so that they can seize opportunities to find partners and attract investment in the global market."



Source：KOTRA (March 04, 2026)