Hoban Group said on the 21st that audio platform startup "ThirtyBlack" won the grand prize at the "2026 Hoban Next Startup Contest" hosted by the company.
Hoban Group held an awards ceremony for the "2026 Hoban Next Startup Contest" at the Hoban Group headquarters in Seocho-gu, Seoul, on this day.
ThirtyBlack, which won the grand prize in this contest, received high marks for proposing a solution that delivers sound only to designated areas by using zone-specific sound control based on parametric speakers and acoustic wave communication technology.
Hoban Group expects the technology to be used broadly across spaces operated by group affiliates, including construction sites, resorts, commercial facilities, and cultural and exhibition venues.
Excellence awards went to "Molder Korea," which showcased an AI model-based automatic CAD drawing analysis and 3D model auto-generation technology; "Daemosan Development Group," which runs a hands-on training service and builds corporate workflow automation systems using large language model (LLM)-based AI agents; and "Stephow," which provides document structuring and datafication solutions.
Hoban Group, together with the Korea Institute of Startup and Entrepreneurship Development (KISED) and the Seoul Business Agency (SBA), has been running the startup technology contest twice a year since last year to discover promising startups and expand open innovation.
Through the "Hoban Next Startup Contest" and the "Hoban Innovation Technology Contest," scheduled for the second half of the year, the company has supported the development and commercialization of innovative technologies at a total of 62 corporations from 2020 to the present.
This contest has been underway since April, with a total of 92 corporations participating, focusing on construction automation and digital infrastructure linked to the Smart City industry, energy and ESG (environmental, social and governance), and new business fields.
Hoban Group selected a final four corporations after a comprehensive evaluation of technological merit and business potential, feasibility of validation, core competencies, and applicability to affiliates.
Winning corporations will receive 1.2 billion won in commercialization support funds, along with follow-up support such as technology verification and test-bed assistance, office space, global program operations, networking, and investment linkage.
Moon Gap, head of management at Hoban Construction, said, "Hoban Group is continually expanding open innovation so that startups' innovative technologies can be applied to real sites and businesses to create new value," adding, "We ask for strong interest and participation from corporations with outstanding technology and growth potential in the '2026 Hoban Innovation Technology Contest' scheduled for the second half of the year."
Meanwhile, Hoban Group is jointly developing an automated quantity takeoff and preliminary estimate automation process with "FOBECON," the AI-based automatic cost estimation system developer that won the grand prize at last year's "2025 Hoban Innovation Technology Contest."