Kang Yoon-joo, head of the Korea Design Promotion Agency (photo), who participated in "Viva Tech 2026," Europe's largest tech fair held in Paris from the 17th to the 20th (local time), said in a interview with Maeil Business Newspaper, "Style tech is a field that requires not only technology but also an understanding of design, user experience, and lifestyle, so the process of directly checking the responses of local consumers and buyers is more important than anything else. We will actively support Korean companies to enter the global market and produce practical results such as investment, cooperation, and market expansion."
Style-tech refers to industries that combine lifestyle industries such as fashion, beauty, and living with digital technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and data.
Since 2019, the Korea Design Promotion Agency has been discovering style tech startups to support design-based technology innovation and expansion of opportunities for collaboration with large and medium-sized companies. So far, it has supported a total of 166 companies and selected eight promising style tech startups this year to help them participate in Viva Tech. They include Drap, an AI-based commerce content production solution company that automatically generates advertising images, model outfits, and detailed pages with just one product photo, and Beauty Tech Mimetics, which is developing next-generation patch technology that improves skin adhesion and active ingredient delivery efficiency.
"In the AI era, how much valuable experience technology is connected to the technology determines competitiveness rather than the technology itself, and the role of design is very important in the process," Director Kang said, adding, "Style Tech is a representative industrial field that creates new markets and business models through the convergence of design and technology."
The Korea Design Promotion Agency has been supporting style tech companies' overseas expansion directly at the Viva Tech site since 2023. It supports the entire process, including buyer matching, networking, investment attraction, and export contracts. "Last year, we formed a joint pavilion of 26 companies with six organizations, including the Korea International Trade Association, and more than 30 PoC (project verification) and collaboration proposals have been made," Director Kang said. "Viva Tech is becoming an important platform for domestic style tech companies to check their possibilities in the global market and connect them to actual business performance."
In particular, for the first time this year, the Korea Design Promotion Agency oversaw the exhibition planning, space design, and field operation of the Korean Joint Hall, and was well received for integrating the composition, design, and brand message of the exhibition space. Seven organizations, including the Korea International Trade Association and the Korea Design Promotion Agency, and 34 startups participated in the joint hall.
[Reporter Seo Jeongwon]
