Upstage, Selectstar, Apollo Win MediA’X Challenge 2025

‘MediA’X Challenge 2025’, set to pioneer the future of AI and media tech convergence, has concluded its grand finale. In this challenge, co-hosted by the SBS Foundation and Korea Investment Accelerator (KIAC), three teams – Upstage, Selectstar, and Apollo – were recognized for their innovative ideas and technological prowess, earning the honor of final winners. The winning teams, selected through document and in-person evaluations, attended the awards ceremony held at the Korea Investment Accelerator headquarters on the 25th, where they received enthusiastic congratulations. Upstage, which took first place, received 100 million won, Selectstar in second place received 30 million won, and Apollo in third place received 20 million won, totaling 150 million won in prize money. In addition to the prize money, the winning teams will receive exceptional support for innovative growth. This includes not only close technical cooperation opportunities with SBS but also up to 100 million won worth of cloud credits and commercialization technical support through Naver Cloud's startup growth program 'Greenhouse.' Furthermore, they will be given opportunities for investment review by Korea Investment Accelerator and recommendations for the Ministry of SMEs and Startups' TIPS program, providing robust wings for their leap forward. Upstage, which earned the prestigious first place, received high praise from the judges for its 'Full-stack LLM' solution, combining OCR (Optical Character Recognition) and LLM (Large Language Model). This technology has the potential to revolutionize document processing and business automation in various industries, including media, finance, and healthcare. Selectstar, in second place, drew attention by operating a platform that provides high-quality datasets for AI training. In particular, its multilingual media data labeling technology is expected to be a key infrastructure for accelerating the global expansion of K-content. Apollo, in third place, showcased real-time interactive content creation technology utilizing an AI-based game engine. Its ambition is to lower the barrier to creation by building an environment where anyone can easily and quickly create content without specialized knowledge. An official from the SBS Foundation expressed expectations that the synergy between AI technology and content will further elevate the global standing of the Korean media industry. An official from Korea Investment Accelerator also emphasized that this year will be a significant turning point for the commercialization of media AI, promising generous support for promising startups to expand their influence on the global stage. Attention is now focused on whether the innovative companies discovered through this challenge will open new horizons for the Korean media industry.