KOOM 2025: How Korea’s Cultural DNA Is Powering the Next Wave of Global Innovation

Backed by Naver, Smilegate, and Krafton, the United Korean Founders’ festival brings together tech leaders, investors, and creators to chart the future of K-innovation.

This October, Duggal Greenhouse in Brooklyn Navy Yard will host KOOM Festival 2025, a three-day convergence of Korea’s startups, cultural brands, and creative industries. Organized by United Korean Founders (UKF), KOOM is not just a showcase but an experiment in turning cultural momentum into commercial opportunity. From October 16 to 18, founders, investors, artists and lifestyle brands will intersect across panels, exhibitions, pitch tracks, food zones, and K-pop performances — all under the banner of projecting a global Korea.

KOOM arrives at a moment when Korean culture already commands global attention. K-pop, Korean drama, K-beauty and cuisine have earned audiences and curiosity worldwide. The organizers aim to ride that wave, not just for soft power but to generate real business deals, cross-border brand growth, and storytelling-driven ventures. As reported in Forbes, KOOM is framed as “a festival with ambition” — by day an industry summit, by night a cultural showcase.

UKF, Saeju Jeong & the Vision Behind KOOM

At the core, KOOM’s ambition is United Korean Founders (UKF), a Korean-American entrepreneur network seeking to link diaspora founders, Korean brands, and global capital. KOOM is UKF’s flagship event — a festival built “100% through donations and volunteers,” according to its UMoh event page.

Leading that effort is Saeju Jeong, the Noom cofounder and KOOM Chair. Jeong’s trajectory — launching a health app and scaling it globally — gives him credibility in both business and lifestyle domains. He speaks of KOOM as a platform to transform cultural identity into scalable exports, noting that even seemingly mundane cultural moments carry global potential.

“KOOM is like ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ — a fusion of art, technology, and story. This festival will showcase the excellence of Korean innovation and culture together, from cosmetics to cuisine, from startups to storytelling, he said”

His vision positions KOOM as a bridge: “Korean lifestyle meets global culture,” turning everyday experiences into narrative assets for entrepreneurs and creators.

Program Structure: What to Expect October 16–18

KOOM Festival 2025 is built around three thematic days that deliberately carry attendees from foundational narratives to global cultural projection. As per the official program, each day is anchored by flagship sessions, interactive formats, and evening performances. Below is an enhanced, day-by-day guide to what participants will experience — including likely highlights, strategic intent, and thematic arcs.

Day 1 – The Day of Pioneers (October 16)

The opening day is about origins, courage, and early-stage breakthroughs. KOOM uses this day to ground attendees in founder stories and create a shared vocabulary for the rest of the festival.

Morning & Afternoon: Startup Pitches and Founder Insights
The day begins with the Startup Pitch Competition, where early-stage ventures showcase their ideas live before a mixed jury of investors, industry experts, and founders. The intention is twofold: to surface high-potential projects and to model how Korean founders present to global capital.

This is followed by a series of keynote and panel talks. Speakers expected include:

• Hyuk-bin Kwon (Smilegate) — on building a global gaming ecosystem
  
• Oh-hyun Kwon (former Samsung Electronics) — on institutional leadership and legacy transitions
  
• Bong-jin Kim (Woowa Brothers) — sharing the ride from domestic delivery service to regional expansion
  
• Jun-koo Kim (Webtoon) — how storytelling transcends borders
  
• Jim Kim (Snowfox) — navigating consumer trends and scaling
  
• Sung-joo Kim (MCM) — combining fashion, luxury and branding strategies
  

These sessions explore not just success, but failure, iteration, team formation, and brand values. One takeaway attendees should anticipate: the common thread between creative identity and startup competence.

Evening: Cultural Transition & K-pop Night
As the conference halls close, the energy shifts. KOOM’s first K-pop Night features performances by Soyou, Sam Kim, So-hee Song, and Sohyang. This transition is intentional — business and culture are interwoven, not siloed, in KOOM’s design.

Day 2 – The Day of Experts (October 17)

Day two is deeply technical, practical and investor-centric. It is intended for founders with early traction who are now seeking scale, funding, and infrastructure.

Core Sessions: Finance, Infrastructure & Deep Tech
Panels scheduled include Global IPO Trends, highlighting the challenges and pathways for Korean startups to list abroad, possibly with insights from PwC Samil. Another is Investment & Leadership, which brings in U.S. VCs (e.g. Alexa von Tobel, Haley Barna) to contrast global investing criteria with Korean founder expectations.

Further panels dive into technical verticals — artificial intelligence, health tech, and Web3 — exploring case studies, challenges, and roadmap alignment for global markets.

“Dream Lounge” & Mentorship Tracks
A parallel track dubbed the Dream Lounge fosters smaller, less formal interactions. Founders can join curated roundtables with mentors, ask burning questions, workshop business models, or engage in peer feedback. These intimate sessions complement the main stage, offering depth and follow-up.

Evening Concert
The evening lineup includes Seori, Jiselle, Yves, tripleS, and DJ Raiden. By merging music and tech content, KOOM maintains momentum and ensures attendees remain engaged across the full day.

Day 3 – The Day of Trendsetters (October 18)

On the final day, the festival turns toward cultural exports, creative IP, and global brand strategy. This is where ideas meet consumer markets.

Cultural & Business Storytelling Panels
Panels slated for this day include:

• Cho Hee-kyung (Hwayo): exporting Korean traditional liquor — bridging heritage and taste economies
  
• Junghun Song (Cupbop): franchising Korean casual food globally
  
• Ryan Lee (Pinkfong): children’s media IP and global storytelling
  
• Tae-ho Kim (HYBE): dissecting how the K-pop model sustains creative ecosystems
  
• Hannah Yang (NYT): on media, content, and narrative economies
  
• Song Gil-young (Smilegate Future Lab): AI, data and creative convergence
  

These sessions aim to demonstrate how creative goods — music, food, stories, beauty — can be scaled commercially, and what infrastructure (distribution, licensing, marketing) is needed.

Brand Booths & F&B Interaction
Parallel to these panels are the Brand and F&B Zones. Attendees can sample Korean dishes, test new beauty products or lifestyle gadgets, and interact directly with startup founders. For example, a K-beauty brand might offer mini facial experiences, or a food brand might present a fusion snack.

Culinary Insights from Chefs
Michelin-level chefs such as Huni Kim and Simon Kim are expected to share techniques and stories — how food expresses identity, and how culinary design intersects with brand narratives.

Grand K-pop Finale
To close KOOM, the festival stages a main concert featuring Epik High, Zion.T, Giriboy, Sokodomo, CORTIS, and DJ Spray. The goal: leave attendees with cultural resonance, reminding that Korea’s creative voice remains core to its innovation narrative.

Strategic Significance & Expected Takeaways

This program design does more than entertain. It’s carefully structured to serve as a bridge between Korea’s cultural capital and global innovation networks — blending business outcomes with creative storytelling. Each element of KOOM Festival 2025, from startup pitches to live cultural showcases, has been designed with purpose.

1. Nurturing Pipeline Connections

KOOM acts as a living marketplace where founders, investors, and corporate innovators meet in an environment that encourages real collaboration. By hosting startups, global venture firms, creative agencies, and media partners under one roof, the festival creates natural pathways for partnerships.
Startups gain access to potential backers and distribution partners; investors gain firsthand insight into Korea’s emerging innovation clusters. The presence of corporate sponsors like Naver, Smilegate, and Krafton further ensures that discussions go beyond introductions — toward pilot projects, joint ventures, and long-term ecosystem alliances.mi

2. Demonstrating Product-Market Fit

Unlike conventional conferences, KOOM integrates live consumer engagement into its design. The Brand and F&B Zones are built as testbeds where startups can present new beauty lines, wellness concepts, or food innovations directly to global audiences.
This approach allows companies to gather real-time consumer reactions — a critical step for refining product-market fit before large-scale expansion. For K-beauty brands, culinary innovators, and lifestyle startups, KOOM provides both exposure and empirical feedback, positioning it as a validation platform for products entering international markets.

3. Framing Culture as Innovation Infrastructure

At KOOM, culture is not treated as a backdrop — it is the foundation of innovation. The festival’s structure recognizes that storytelling, aesthetics, and shared experiences are key drivers of modern entrepreneurship. Sessions such as “The Next Chapter of K-Culture: Beyond ‘Made in Korea’” explore how cultural assets can be scaled through technology and design thinking.
This reframing positions culture as infrastructure — one that supports creative industries, strengthens national branding, and anchors Korea’s innovation diplomacy in authenticity and emotional resonance.

4. Unifying Multiple Verticals Under a Korean Identity

KOOM’s biggest strength lies in how it connects diverse verticals — technology, content, and lifestyle — under one cohesive narrative. It highlights how Korea’s innovation story spans across industries: from AI-driven retail and entertainment tech to sustainable beauty and F&B entrepreneurship.
By presenting these fields together, KOOM reinforces a holistic national brand — “K-lifestyle” as both a cultural export and a business framework. This integration not only attracts cross-sector collaboration but also strengthens Korea’s positioning as a hub for hybrid innovation where creativity and commerce coexist.

Ultimately, KOOM’s ambition hinges on turning those interactions into measurable outcomes — partnerships, pilot projects, and global expansion strategies that continue beyond the festival. It’s less about spectacle and more about sustained global presence — proving that Korea’s next wave of growth will come not just from innovation itself, but from how it’s shared with the world.

What Attendees Will Experience: Business, Beauty & Taste

A key strength of KOOM is its blending of exhibition, performance, and business engagement. The festival isn’t staged like a dry conference — it’s designed to immerse visitors in Korean creative life while enabling startup and brand discovery.

• The Brand Zone features Korean beauty, lifestyle, and design brands — many offering product demos, limited releases or interactive experiences.
• The F&B Zone brings together food brands from Seoul and New York (Okdongsik, Seoul Salon, Take31, among others) to present street and fusion flavors.
• The Artist & Concert spaces run nightly, mixing performance energy with daytime discovery.
• Startup booths function as live labs — founders demo products, discuss strategies, and gather feedback in real time.

This convergence allows not just talk, but sensory encounters — taste, touch, music — that reinforce KOOM’s narrative of Korea as a living, evolving brand.

Sponsors & Ecosystem Support

KOOM’s scale depends heavily on sponsor and partner support rather than ticket sales alone. According to the official partners page, KOOM 2025 includes:

These collaborators bring capital, cross-promotion, distribution channels, product pipelines, and brand credibility. Their involvement underscores KOOM’s ambition: it’s not a fringe festival, but part of a national-scale push to reposition Korea’s creative economy.

Conclusion

For emerging founders and innovators, KOOM Festival 2025 is more than a stage — it’s an invitation to think bigger. By bringing together tech pioneers, cultural leaders, and investors in one global arena, KOOM underscores the value of storytelling, collaboration, and cross-border thinking in building the next generation of startups. Korean entrepreneurs once known for manufacturing excellence are now redefining themselves as creators of experiences, platforms, and cultural movements. Whether you’re pitching a new AI product, scaling a lifestyle brand, or seeking global partners, KOOM offers both a roadmap and a reminder: innovation is most powerful when it speaks the language of culture.