How Samsung’s C-Lab programme spawns innovation

Agarwal isn't alone,  though. Since it started in 2012, this unique startup acceleration program has seen 1,507 Samsung employees participate in 365 C-Lab projects. About 128 of those projects have been transferred to in-house Samsung divisions, while 59 have spun off into standalone companies. The Korean tech giant has in six years invested $26 million within the 59 C-Lab Inside spin-off startups — 30 of these have raised a total of over $100 million in follow-up investments.  Also, Read Considering an older Android flagship smartphone? Here’s what to stay in mind.  Mark John, Creativity and Innovation Center, Samsung Electronics, explains that the thought of C-Lab (Creativity Lab) emerged with the realization that constant innovation was the only thing that could help Samsung maintain its edge over its competition. “How can Samsung maintain its own strength while spreading creative culture? C-Lab has started with this question in mind,” John remembers, adding that over a decade ago Samsung executives visited Silicon Valley to learn about the startup culture there and came up with the idea of creating a work environment that maximized employee potential. The C-Labs project has two aspects — C- Lab Inside for Samsung employees and C-Lab Outside for entrepreneurs and startups outside the corporate. The previous was how C-Labs originally started in 2012, to get new ideas and cultivate a creative corporate culture within the company. In 2018, the latter was kick began to stimulate the start-up ecosystem in South Korea with financial aid, mentoring, consultation, business cooperation, and infrastructure. The most purpose of the C-Labs program, consistent with John, was to “expand the creative culture within the corporate by discovering and implementing innovative ideas”. He adds: “Through C Lab, we've attempted to make  the entire Samsung creative and innovative with the intention for synergy between the traditional organization and accelerator. ”Twice a year, C-Lab Inside selects ideas submitted by Samsung employees. After several screening processes, about 30-40 ideas that drive industry-wide innovation are shortlisted, no matter the business sector. The C-Lab Outside ideas, meanwhile, are selected via an annual open competition and closed by a management-level review from Samsung. About 20 startups are eligible per annum and end up getting about 100 million Won in funding (about $1.1 million). John explains that the essential criterion for evaluation is clarity about the problem solution's fit, or PSF. “The ideas have to resonate with the audience in terms of PSF and should undergo prototyping and marketability verification process several times a year,” he explains. Projects that are closely associated with Samsung’s business are transferred to an in-house division for further development, he adds. Over the years, the C-Labs inside program has spawned innovative Samsung products like its eco-packaging, The Hero Lifestyle TV, and even Samsung Pay. Among the Spinoffs, the Link flow wearable 360-degree cameras with varied uses in security and remote medicate care may be a noteworthy success. Salted, one among the first companies to be established as a spin-off, has meanwhile become one among the top-ranked in the Amazon golf training product category and recently expanded its business into digital health care. Agarwal, an IIT-Kanpur alumnus who worked with Samsung, went through the whole process of C-Lab selection before his idea was selected. “You know startup may be a challenging journey. But due to the support of Samsung, I feel I’ve been able to come this far,” says the founding father of Tag hive. Showcasing the success of his product in government schools, Agarwal says in Madhya Pradesh they found that in 30 days of using Class Saatchi, the training outcome went up by 8 per cent across math and science and attendance went up 10 per cent. The merchandise is now in use in 1,200 government schools across India and in about 200 schools in Korea, he adds. The clickers are now manufactured in Korea, but Agarwal plans to bring production to India also. Since 2013, the C-Lab program has been active at the Samsung R&D Institute Bangalore (SRI-B) too with selected ideas/teams given the chance to work on their ideas for six months.