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15 channels, 3 million cumulative subscribers. 200 government and corporate projects. These are the achievements accomplished by video-specialized startup Elba. Koo Ju-won (CEO), who leads Elba, has been operating YouTube for 13 years since high school. Based on his production experience, Koo (CEO), who is deeply committed to video, launched a video production AI platform. It is ‘Yubico,’ which allows teams to use over 30 AI services together.
Yubico focused on consolidating the communication processes that occur during video production between team members and companies in one place to minimize communication costs. For example, when producing a video, if a client makes a simple request such as “change the subtitle color at 3 minutes and 24 seconds,” it takes three to four hours to create a document to convey this and have it delivered to the actual person in charge. It is explained that converting the time spent on communication into costs accounts for approximately 30% of production expenses.
Yubico allows everyone participating in the project process to join one browser and provide feedback directly. When the workspace is shared this way, the AI used for video production can understand the project’s past revision history and context. In particular, by making over 30 types of AI services available in a single browser, it can reduce maximum AI subscription costs by up to 80%.
Since launching its service last April, Yubico has secured more than 4,800 users without any special marketing, about 70% of whom are overseas users. This is thanks to supporting around 10 languages, including English, Korean, Japanese, Chinese, and Spanish, with global expansion in mind from the early stages of the service.
Elba CEO Gu Ju-won stated, “Currently, when making videos, we plan using Claude, create images using ChatGPT, then produce the video using King AI, and work on the voice using ElevenLabs, combining the outputs of multiple AIs into one,” explaining that “the ability to perform such tasks in a single space is Yubico’s strength.”
Elba started as a campus startup at UNIST (Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology) and has been recognized for its business viability in various places, including being selected for the Presidential MVP Demo and Startup Competition 10Yeo Hoe (수상), IBK Changgong, Woori Financial Dino Lab, KDB NextONE, and Busan Technology Venture Capital Global Investment Attraction Program. It also raised 3 million won in seed investment from Series Ventures, Seoul National University Technology Holding, and Busan Regional Consortium Universities Technology Holding. Currently, it is promoting Pre-Series A fundraising to launch full-scale marketing for Yubico.
Elba will compete as the representative of UNIST student startup teams in the finals of the ‘2026 K-Deep Tech Startup King of the Kings’ ( Spectator application: https://forms.gle/McNBqdiBts8RJazVA), to be held on the 30th at Hall B Plus Stage, COEX, Seoul Samsung-dong.
Now in its fifth year, the King of the Kings is hosted by MoneyToday startup media platform ‘Unicorn Factory’ and co-hosted by KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology), DGIST (Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology), UNIST (Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology), GIST (Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology), POSTECH (Pohang University of Science and Technology), and KENTECH (Korea National University of Science and Technology).
The jury includes deep tech investment and commercialization experts from Samsung C Lab Outside, GS Vendors, Ecopro Partners, L&S Venture Capital, LB Investment, Blue Point Partners, Series Ventures, CNTech, Korea Technology Holding, and the R&D Special Zone Promotion Foundation.
Participants range from large corporate CVCs (corporate venture capital) to deep tech-specialized VCs, early-stage investment ACs (accelerators), and public technology commercialization institutional investors, comprehensively reviewing the commercialization potential and investment attractiveness of the technologies.
The finals feature a total of 12 teams, with six each in the faculty and student startup categories. The event is conducted in the format of actual investment attraction IR (investor presentations), with 10-minute presentations and 10-minute Q&A sessions for each team. Evaluation is based on a total score of technology (30 points), marketability (20 points), business viability (40 points), and team capability (10 points).
The Grand Prize will be awarded to one team in each of the faculty and student startup categories. The two Grand Prize teams will receive the Minister’s Award from the Ministry of Science and ICT, which is the Deputy Prime Minister’s award, along with a prize money of 0.3 billion won. Four Excellence Award teams will receive the R&D Special Zone Promotion Foundation Lee (President) Award and 1 million won in prize money, while six Encouragement Award teams will each receive the MoneyToday CEO Award and 500,000 won in prize money.
Winning teams will be provided with benefits such as linkage to CVC open innovation and bonus points when participating in the Global Digital Innovation Network (GDIN) overseas expansion program. Regardless of winning status, all 12 finalist teams will receive support for a one-year follow-up scale-up program, including corporate promotion, expert consulting, and investor networking.
<5th K-Deep Tech Startup King of the Kings Spectator Application>
-Date: October 30 (Fri) 9:30~17:00
-Location: Seoul COEX Hall B PLUS STAGE
-Target: Deep tech field startups and investment VC reviewers
-Hosts: KAIST, DGIST, UNIST, GIST, POSTECH, KENTECH, MoneyToday Unicorn Factory
-Application: https://forms.gle/McNBqdiBts8RJazVA
[MoneyToday startup media platform Unicorn Factory]
in FUTURE
