2021 LG NOVA Proto Challenge

Deadline: July 21, 2021

LG has been a leader in innovation for more than 70 years, and as our world changes, LG continues to create products and services that have a positive impact.

The inaugural LG NOVA Proto Challenge turns its innovation focus toward the global startup community, entrepreneurs, developers, and big thinkers who can help conceptualize new business models and approaches to create a more seamless and accessible experience of daily life in an interconnected future society.

With a vision to improve quality of life by helping businesses that impact the future to achieve instrumental success, LG creates social impact and builds diverse partnerships to make it possible.

We’re looking for innovative approaches and technologies that could launch entirely new business initiatives within LG.

Whether you’re enabling new services in-the-home that make life better, a new way to make EV charging widely available to create a more sustainable world, or something else entirely, we encourage you to apply!

LG Electronics, well known for its many industry leading brands and products across a myriad of spaces and for a diverse range of end-users, is deeply committed to innovation and improving quality of life. We work to improve the experiences of our customers, envision new ways to operate our business units, and always consider how our operations impact the larger global community, like our 2019 pledge to achieve carbon neutral operations by 2030.

Beyond our commitment to innovation and improving quality of life, LG is also cognizant of the positive impact our products can have for different communities around the world and here at home.  We are dedicated to ensuring that our future work provides a positive social impact, as wide and diverse as possible.

LG NOVA, a dedicated center for innovation based in Silicon Valley, launched a new initiative to find  innovative, future-impacting companies to build, nurture, and help grow.

LG NOVA plans to launch a grand challenge program this fall to attract and engage with startups, businesses, entrepreneurs, and developers as a part of this initiative to catalyze innovations for a better life.  

The LG NOVA Proto Challenge is the first opportunity to join the LG NOVA grand challenge program.  The winners of this LG NOVA Proto Challenge will be automatically invited to join the selected companies in the grand challenge program.

Pitch winners will each receive:

  • $10,000 US in prize money,
  • Up to $100,000 US for joint development activities,
  • An invitation to join the upcoming LG grand challenge program in the fall,
  • An invitation to participate in the launch event related to the grand challenge program,
  • The opportunity to feature their marketing video on an LG website, and
  • Ongoing mentorship with the LG NOVA incubator team.

Within those broad spaces, a variety of technologies or approaches that can provide users with greater access to services, capabilities and connections that improve daily life are welcome, especially those that deliver important societal benefits or which impact underserved communities. In the table below, you’ll find just a few ideas:

HOME
  • Smart product & services for the home
  • The extension of home applications beyond the home 
  • Education
  • Health and wellness
  • Home fitness
  • Next-level digital environments and entertainment technologies
  • Sustainable solutions
WORK
  • EV infrastructure
  • Enhancing the home office 
  • Office building efficiency
  • Alternatives or improvements to work devices 
  • Transportation 
  • Sustainable solutions 
LIFE
  • Connected healthcare
  • Innovations that improve access to real and virtual spaces
  • EV charging / powering 
  • Solutions that leverage telecommunications infrastructure and connectivity
  • Eldercare
  • Sustainable solutions

The proposed solution should establish, improve, or increase access, mobility, usability, or connections, either between:

  • A user and their device OR
  • A user and a service OR
  • A user and their environment OR
  • Multiple users

LG is committed to improving quality of life for everyone including, but not limited to:

  • Individuals or communities in rural, suburban and urban spaces OR
  • Individuals or communities with mental or physical limitations OR
  • Individuals or communities with language barriers
HOW TO ENTER

In order to participate in the LG NOVA Proto Challenge, interested respondents must submit a response via the online response form prior to the submission deadline of July 21, 2021 by 11:59 pm PT. Responses must include only non-confidential and non-proprietary content. 

The online form allows you to share compelling, engaging information about your solution or proposed approach and how it furthers the goal of creating better quality of life in an interconnected future society.

All eligible submissions will be evaluated by the criteria provided here. 

To learn more, refer to our webinar or contact us.

AWARDS

LG NOVA will invite up to fifteen (15) highly rated respondents to participate in the upcoming LG NOVA Proto Challenge pitch session on August 17, 2021. At the pitch sessions, respondents will share their solution with a diverse group of LG representatives, including LG corporate executives and members of the Chief Strategy Officer’s team.  

Winners (up to 10) of the pitch sessions will be invited to claim Finalist status in LG NOVA’s upcoming grand challenge program that may lead to additional awards or opportunities, such as the selection to demonstrate and gain on-stage exposure for their solution during the fall grand challenge launch event.

Winners will also receive:

  • $10,000 US in prize money,
  • Up to $100,000 US for joint development activities,
  • The opportunity to feature their marketing video on an LG website, and
  • Ongoing mentorship with the LG NOVA incubator team. 

Additionally, winners may receive invitations to meet with representatives from a relevant business unit within LG, members of LG’s internal Corporate Venture Capital team, or external venture capital groups.

TIMELINE

July 1, 2021: LG NOVA Proto Challenge opens to submissions at 7 AM PT

July 6, 2021: Informational webinar about the Challenge at 10 AM PT

July 21, 2021: Challenge closes to new submissions at 11:59 PM PT

August 4-6, 2021: Notify respondents

August 17, 2021: Finalist pitches 

Late August, 2021: Announce winners

Evaluation

A team of judges from LG, including individuals from the business incubation team and the LG NOVA team, will review all eligible responses to the LG NOVA Proto Challenge. 

Responses will be scored according to:

  • Alignment with the concept of improved access, mobility, usability or connections: 25 points
  • Potential for future work or partnership with LG: 25 points
  • Engaging description of proposed solution: 20 points
  • Convincing pathway to commercialization: 20 points
  • Uniqueness of proposed solution: 10 points

For respondents that advance to the pitch event, a broad array of representatives from LG, including members from the business incubation team, the strategic development team, the innovation team and senior management, will view and score presentations. 

Pitches will be scored against:

  • Alignment with home/work/life and the concept of improved access, mobility, usability, or connections: 15 points
  • Clear vision to growing a business with LG: 15 points
  • Clear understanding and communication of target market, product/market fit, pathway to commercialization: 10 points
  • Overall delivery of presentation: 10 points
CLOSED