Samsung To Showcase C-Lab Startups at CES 2026

AUCKLAND, New Zealand – January 2026 - Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. recently announced it will showcase new projects that, with the support of its C-Lab program, are innovating in a wide range of fields, including AI, robotics and digital health, at CES 2026, the world’s largest consumer electronics and IT exhibition, running Jan. 6-9 in Las Vegas.

At CES, Samsung will operate a dedicated C-Lab exhibition area to support the startups’ expansion into the global market. It will be located in Eureka Park at the Venetian Expo, the designated startup zone of CES, where participating startups will showcase innovative technologies.

“Samsung supports C-Lab startups through CES as a platform to validate innovative technologies and build momentum for global growth,” said Byoung Chul Lee, Vice President and Head of the Creativity & Innovation Center at Samsung Electronics. “This year, expanded participation from regional startups highlights the continued evolution of the C-Lab ecosystem.”

C-Lab Outside: 15 Startups That Include AI, Robotics and Digital Health

This year, C-Lab will feature 15 startups, including eight startups directly incubated by Samsung Electronics through the C-Lab Outside program, four from the Samsung Financial Networks-operated Samsung Financial C-Lab Outside, two from Samsung Electronics’ internal venture program, C-Lab Inside, and one that was jointly incubated by Samsung Electronics and the Daegu Creative Economy Innovation Center.

Record Participation of Regional Startups

Since 2023, Samsung has expanded C-Lab Outside to the Korean cities of Daegu and Gwangju, as well as the Gyeongbuk province. The program identifies and supports promising startups to strengthen regional startup ecosystems, then provides workspace, stage-based consulting and opportunities to collaborate with Samsung and its affiliates. This allows startups to grow without relocating to the much larger city of Seoul and fosters a sustainable local innovation cycle.

To date, 40 regional startups have been incubated through this initiative, contributing to the revitalisation of regional ecosystems and laying the groundwork for future global unicorns.

At CES 2026, seven startups from Daegu, Gwangju and Gyeongbuk will participate, marking the largest-ever presence of regional C-Lab startups at CES.

Regional Startup Achievements Continue to Grow

The technological competitiveness of these regional C-Lab startups continues to gain recognition.

Repla, a plastic recycling startup from C-Lab Outside Gyeongbuk, received a CES 2026 Innovation Award for its Puri-Checker, a device that analyses plastic composition ratios.

“For a regional startup, collaborating with a global company like Samsung has been a valuable opportunity,” said Dong-eun Seo, CEO of Repla. “Plastic recycling is a global challenge, and CES provides an important platform to explore international market opportunities.”

The seven participating regional C-Lab startups are as follows:

Stress Solution (Gyeongbuk): An AI-based personalised mental care sound creation solution
Deepscent (Gwangju): An AI-powered digital scent solution tailored to every space
Elevenliter (Daegu): AI-Powered diagnostics for progressive diseases in pets
AunionAI (Gwangju): A web-based AI solution for automated multilingual dubbing and subtitles with expressive voices and sound effects
Repla (Gyeongbuk): Enzyme-purified recycled plastic, free of impurities
Univa (Daegu): An on-device multimodal large language model solution
10kM.ai (Daegu Creative Economy Innovation Center): An enterprise AI video production solution that can generate, edit and monetise videos

C-Lab Inside Showcases AI-Driven Internal Ventures

Every year since 2016, Samsung has used CES to showcase projects from C-Lab Inside, gauging global market response and validating business potential.

This year, two AI-driven projects evaluated highly for their innovation, global scalability and completeness will be exhibited:

ChronoMix: An AI solution for object-centric video composition
EZ Reco: A generative AI platform that makes electronics recommendations based on expert knowledge

Expansion of C-Lab to Affiliates, Including Financial Startups

Reflecting the expansion of Samsung’s open innovation model across its affiliates, four startups from Samsung Financial C-Lab Outside will participate in CES for the first time. This participation enables startups across various industries to seek new global collaboration opportunities by leveraging Samsung’s incubation experience. The Samsung Financial C-Lab Outside startups are as follows:

Selectstar (Samsung Life Insurance): Copyright-cleared datasets and an all-in-one AI evaluation platform
Datumo (Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance): Cyber risk modeling to quantify and reduce the financial impact of cyber attacks
WINNING.I (Samsung Card): Next-gen identity verification (eKYC) powered by simultaneous fingerprint and face biometrics
Pillsang (Samsung Securities): Real-time phishing (scam/fraud) detection solution using on-device AI

C-Lab Startups Win 17 CES 2026 Innovation Awards

C-Lab startups have received a total of 17 CES 2026 Innovation Awards, including two Best of Innovation Awards, as announced by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA).

Both Best of Innovation Award recipients — MangoSlab and StudioLab — originated from C-Lab Inside and later spun off as independent startups, reaffirming the technological excellence and growth potential of Samsung’s internal ventures.

About Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.

Samsung inspires the world and shapes the future with transformative ideas and technologies. The company is redefining the worlds of TVs, digital signage, smartphones, wearables, tablets, home appliances and network systems, as well as memory, system LSI and foundry. Samsung is also advancing medical imaging technologies, HVAC solutions and robotics, while creating innovative automotive and audio products through Harman. With its SmartThings ecosystem, open collaboration with partners, and integration of AI across its portfolio, Samsung delivers a seamless and intelligent connected experience. For the latest news, please visit the Samsung Newsroom at news.samsung.com.

About Samsung C-Lab

Started in December 2012, C-Lab Inside nurtures employees’ innovative ideas while instilling a corporate culture in which creativity is at the fore. The program supports the development of ideas from all areas of the business. Since 2015, Samsung has been supporting successful C-Lab projects that demonstrate great market potential, and facilitating their launch as startups under the C-Lab spin-off policy. Leveraging the success of the C-Lab Inside initiative, C-Lab Outside has been expanding Samsung’s support for new ventures to startups and innovations outside of the Samsung network since 2018.

Samsung Electronics has a "C-Lab Family" program, so that all startups of C-Lab can continue to co-operate with Samsung even after graduating from the C-Lab Outside or spinning off from C-Lab.

Samsung has nurtured a total of 959 startups and projects since it was established. This includes 536 through C-Lab Outside and 423 through C-Lab Inside.