LOTTE Ventures shares startup collaboration results, plans to expand into biotech next year

[Financial News] LOTTE Ventures, the corporate venture capital (CVC) arm of Lotte Group, is sharing the results of its collaborations with startups and will expand its open innovation support into biotech starting next year.
According to industry sources on the 12th, LOTTE Ventures held the ‘2026 Lotte Open Innovation Day’ the previous day at Lotte Cinema’s World Tower branch in Songpa District, Seoul. At the event, 10 startups participating in the 14th cohort of LOTTE Ventures’ flagship open innovation program ‘L-CAMP’ and the sixth cohort of ‘The Food Changers’ presented the results of collaborations with Lotte Group affiliates.
L-CAMP and The Food Changers are open innovation programs run by LOTTE Ventures. They operate on an open-proposal basis, with startups directly proposing collaboration projects to Lotte Group affiliates. LOTTE Ventures assigns a dedicated investment professional to each selected company on a one-to-one basis and supports them from collaboration with affiliates through technology validation and commercialization.
A total of 10 startups were selected for this year’s programs after succeeding in a February call for applications with 24 applicants for every place. Over about six months, these companies held a total of 132 collaboration meetings with Lotte Group affiliates in the food, retail, commerce, advertising and logistics sectors. They went on to pursue around 20 on-site demonstrations with 16 affiliates. LOTTE Ventures invested a total of 3 billion won directly in the companies and also helped them secure about 2.4 billion won in policy funding.
The event also featured a success story from a Lotte Group intrapreneurial venture. L-ways, an internal venture at Lotte Homeshopping selected as an outstanding project under the group-wide intrapreneurship program ‘Lotte Unicorn Valley,’ shared the business results of its ‘L-Bottle’ brand of foods bearing functional claims.
LOTTE Ventures plans to broaden its open innovation support to the biotech industry starting next year. It will add a biotech track to recruitment for L-CAMP in the first half of 2027 and plans to run a specialized biotech program jointly with Lotte Biologics. The aim is to help biotech startups validate their technology in real-world industrial settings and improve their prospects for commercialization.
In his welcoming remarks, LOTTE Ventures CEO Kim Seung-uk said, “Grounded in respect for entrepreneurs, we will not stop at pursuing investment returns; we will work together in real business settings to deliver results and grow.” He added, “We will do our utmost to create a world where startups and Lotte Group innovate together.”

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