HydroXpend Wins Grand Prize at Jeonbuk 'SWITCH' Climate Tech Startup Demoday

Jeonbuk Special Self-Governing Province has presented an ambitious vision to become the heart of future climate tech! The "SWITCH" new track demo day for the 2025 Climate Tech Startup Growth Support Project, hosted by Jeonbuk Special Self-Governing Province, Jeonbuk Technopark, and Sopung Connect, was successfully held recently at COEX in Seoul. This event, held as a linked program of "COMEUP 2025," gathered over 100 people including climate tech startups, investors, and stakeholders from across the nation, adding to the fervor of innovation. In particular, Shin Hyun-young, head of the Startup Support Division of Jeonbuk Special Self-Governing Province, expressed a strong commitment to transforming Jeonbuk into a "testbed" for climate tech startups through the '2026 Jeonbuk Startup Venture Ecosystem Activation Plan'. This strategy is demonstration-centric, utilizing the province's agro-bio, energy, and eco-friendly industrial base. It plans to establish a medium-to-long-term support system, including regulatory exceptions, to create a virtuous cycle leading to investment and scale-up. At the demo day, seven promising climate tech companies, including AESTech, Cycle X, and iPop, who advanced through fierce competition, were evaluated on their technological innovation, business models, and contribution to the Jeonbuk ecosystem. Under sharp questioning from judges representing major investment firms such as D.CAMP, GS E&C, and Korea Investment Accelerator, each team demonstrated its future growth potential. As a result, 'HydroXpend' took the grand prize, winning 10 million won. The top excellence award went to 'AESTech', and excellence awards were given to 'N-Client' and 'Cycle X'. The winning companies will receive practical support, including participation in demonstration projects within the Jeonbuk region and connections to follow-up investments. Meanwhile, author Moon Kyung-hee, writer of 『Energy Business』, provided a deep foresight into the changes in the energy industry in 2026 during an insight session, presenting new business opportunities for climate tech startups. Officials from Jeonbuk Technopark and Sopung Connect stated in unison, "The participating companies presented concrete cooperation roadmaps applicable to the Jeonbuk region," and "This event has laid an important foundation for Jeonbuk to leap forward as a global climate tech hub."