Korea Intellectual Property Office names Reeturnol top intellectual property startup

The Korea Intellectual Property Office said Tuesday that Reeturnol, a startup whose artificial intelligence automatically inspects goods returned to online stores, won the top award at its 2026 intellectual property startup contest.

The company, led by Chief Executive Yoon Dae-geon, took the grand prize at the awards ceremony held at the Korea Intellectual Property Center in Gangnam District, Seoul. Reeturnol developed and patented technology that uses AI to inspect returned items quickly and accurately, and its data-based returns inspection automation solution, Reeturniz, lowered the share of returned products that are discarded to about 6 percent from 25 percent, according to the office.

The contest is the intellectual property office's preliminary round for the annual K-Sprout Startup competition, a government-wide program that this year runs from October to December. It is jointly organized by the office, the Korea Invention Promotion Association, the Korea Credit Guarantee Fund and the Banks Foundation for Young Entrepreneurs, known as D.CAMP, to identify and support startups in national strategic technology fields such as semiconductors, secondary batteries, advanced biology and artificial intelligence. A total of 126 startups entered this year, and 10 were selected after document screening, presentations and a public participation review.

Oliveworks, Holt Energy and InnoKeep won excellence awards, while Oloscope, Brain Cheese, Dadadak Healthcare, AAAC Bio, Nova Bio and X-Up received innovation awards.

Before the ceremony, the winning companies pitched to venture investors in attendance to seek funding. They also earned places in the main round of the K-Sprout Startup 2026 competition, where they will vie for the presidential award and its 500 million won ($367,647) prize against startups that pass other ministries' preliminary rounds in October. A company that advanced through last year's intellectual property contest went on to win the top presidential award at the 2025 integrated finals.

"Intellectual property-based startups in fact have a higher success rate than companies without intellectual property," said Kim Il-kyu, director general of the office's intellectual property policy bureau. "We will spare no support, including help with investment and opening markets, so that intellectual property-based sprouts can bear good fruit."