Samsung to unleash AI, Robotics and digital health innovations at CES 2026

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 revitalization 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

Repla, a plastic recycling startup from C-Lab Outside Gyeongbuk, received a CES 2026 Innovation Award for its Puri-Checker, a device that analyzes 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 personalized 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 monetize 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 cyberattacks
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.