South Korean conglomerate CJ Group on Tuesday picked 11 startups for its incubation program, dubbed Product Challenge 101, after nine months of training, marketing support and review courses.

The 11 finalists were picked among 90 shortlisted candidates, CJ said Wednesday.

Product Challenge 101 is a startup competition modeled after CJ ENM’s idol star search competition series Produce 101 televised in Korea in 2016.

CJ launched the startup incubation program last year to nurture promising startups by providing with various training courses and marketing support in cooperation with the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, Korea Institute of Startups & Entrepreneurship Development, and Seoul Center for Creative Economy & Innovation.

After choosing 101 participants that had been in business for less than seven years as of May 2018, CJ has offered distribution, marketing and trading courses to them. It also supported their entry into new markets both at home and abroad including CJ O Shopping’s home shopping channel and online mall.

An official at Blue Communication, one of the finalists, said the company won an export deal thanks to the support it had received during the project.

The final winners will enjoy the conglomerate’s generous marketing support which will give them chances to supply their products for product placement ads in television programs and sell their products at the group’s drug store CJ Olive Young outlets.

CJ will open a new round of the challenge for this year and will send out invitations to applicants for this year’s program in April.

By Kim Gi-jung and Lee Ha-yeon

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]