C-Lab is an in-house startup incubator launched by Samsung back in 2012. The program assists Samsung’s employees with resources to develop their business ideas into products. As ideas turn into concrete products, C-Lab spins off these projects into fully-fledged start-ups. Since the launch of C-Lab spin-off policy in 2015, dozens of C-Lab projects have turned into startups.
The company has announced in a press release today that three more C-Lab projects – AGWART, CATCH FLOW and FOR MAKERS – are joining the spin-off list. This takes the total number of C-Lab spin-offs since 2015 to 34.
Three diverse projects
AGWART developed an indoor smart garden solution called ‘PLANTBOX.’ It consists of a small refrigerator-like smart greenhouse, seed capsules, and an app. It allows users to easily grow vegetables and herbs at home by merely inserting the seed capsule of choice. PLANTBOX will take care of the rest by automatically detecting the seed species and optimizing the internal environment accordingly. The app is used to monitor and control the environment.
CATCH FLOW is the creator of ‘S-Ray,’ a portable directional speaker which was showcased earlier this year at CES 2018. S-Ray speaker, which comes in different form factors, pushes sound in a single direction so that it is audible only to the user. It aims to offer the convenience of earphones without the disadvantages accompanying them.
FOR MAKERS came up with ‘AppBee,’ a research platform which analyses users' mobile usage patterns and employs AI algorithms to connect clients with suitable users. It’s a smart user interview platform which hopes to offer market research data that is more reliable and cost-effective than the conventional methods.
All the three projects have officially left Samsung as of May 31. “During the past three years, 34 start-ups with 130 employees were spun off from C-Lab and they have hired an additional 170 people from outside of Samsung,” said Jaiil Lee, Vice President and Head of Creativity & Innovation Center at Samsung Research.
