From C-LAB to VivaTech and the Samsung Developer Conference: CLIKA’s Journey with Samsung Electronics

About C-LAB and CLIKA 

Earlier in February 2023, CLIKA was selected for C-LAB Outside, a startup acceleration program operated by Samsung Electronics. With the aim of extending the success of its in-house idea incubation program—C-Lab Inside—to support external startups, the initiative seeks to empower promising entrepreneurs beyond the corporate realm. The benefits of participating in C-LAB Outside include a fund of up to a maximum of 100 million KRW for a year, office space, cooperation opportunities with Samsung, as well as the opportunity to participate in related conferences. 

From a flood of startups that applied to this program, CLIKA was among the few selected for its merit, spanning innovation, feasibility, scalability and social impact. Since joining C-LAB, CLIKA has actively participated in numerous exhibitions, with highlights including the Viva Technology 2023 (VivaTech 2023) and the Samsung Developer Conference 2023 (SDC 23). 

Viva Technology 2023 

VivaTech is Europe’s largest startup and tech event, held in 2023 at the Paris Expo Porte de Versailles. Four major themes of the event included: AI, ClimateTech & Energy, Diversity & Inclusion, and the Future of Sports. What made VivaTech 2023 particularly notable was that it was Samsung Electronics’ first time participating in the event to showcase innovative projects fostered through its C-LAB program. Giving it the name “K-Startup Hall,” Samsung set up an exhibition space dedicated exclusively for its C-LAB startups. 

CLIKA was part of this hall over the course of four days to showcase its auto lightweight AI toolkit that helps companies commercialize and scale their AI models quickly, reliably, and economically. On the penultimate day of the event, where “A Conversation with Elon Musk” took place, Nayul took the center stage during the Q&A to not only pitch CLIKA in front of an audience of thousands of people but also hand her business card to Elon Musk following the pitch.  

Little did we know that this moment would become viral on social media immediately following the talk, giving Nayul a newfound nickname: the business card girl.

Samsung Developer Conference 2023 

If VivaTech was the highlight of CLIKA’s summer with Samsung that year, autumn was all about SDC, held in San Francisco at the Moscone Center. The conference's theme was all about innovation and connectivity, centered primarily around the following products: Bixby, Matter, OneUI 6, Samsung Health, SmartThings, and Tizen. From investors, thought leaders, and researchers to corporate representatives, people from all over the world visited the conference to get insights into some of the latest developments on Samsung’s innovation. 

CLIKA took part in the conference as part of the C-LAB program. What made this conference particularly unique was that our team was given an exhibition space where we showcased our auto lightweight AI solution in action. Specifically, we demonstrated CLIKA-compressed AI models deployed onto Samsung tablets and mobile phones with the absence of internet to show how on-device AI in mobile environments can be made easy with our solution. 

Later in the day at the conference, Ben gave a session titled, “Bringing AI/ML into Production: Where do we stand?” Drawing from his personal experience and industry insights, Ben delved into some of the current challenges in productionizing AI for on-device use and mobile devices amid growing access to open-source Large Language Models (LLMs). 

We successfully wrapped up this event with a home-style barbecue party organized by our team at our accommodation, celebrating with fellow members from other C-LAB startups that participated in the conference. 

While CLIKA participated in several other exhibitions as part of C-LAB, its involvement in VivaTech and SDC were some of the key highlights in 2023. Each event generated significant opportunities for networking and showcasing our auto lightweight AI toolkit—a one-stop solution for businesses looking to economically compress and scale their AI-based solutions. But most importantly, our time with C-LAB and the accompanying opportunities acted as a catalyst for CLIKA's growth and expansion into the global market.