The BeBody team (from the second from the left: students Choi So-yul, Min Ji-won, and Kang Se-chan), which won second place in the Global Innovation Award, poses for a commemorative photo with NPI Chairman Moon Kook-hyun (right) and others. In the background is SV WIN Chairman Farshad Naimi, who participated via video conference.

“BeBody,” a startup team composed of current students at KIBS (KMU International Business School) at Kookmin University, won the “Global Innovation Award”—equivalent to second place—at the “4th Business Plan Competition” held on Wednesday, September 16, 2026, at the Genesis Lab at Handong Global University in Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province.
 
The BeBody team consisted of KIBS students Choi So-yul (Class of 2025), Min Ji-won (Class of 2026), and Kang Se-chan (Class of 2026), under the guidance of Professor Yoon Jong Yung from the College of Software Convergence at Kookmin University.
 
This competition was organized by the Silicon Valley World Innovation Network (SV WIN) and the New Paradigm Institute (NPI) as part of the “Global Innovation Builders Forum 2026 (8th Silicon Valley Business Forum),” and was hosted by the Ministry of Education, Gyeongbuk ANCHOR, and Handong University. The event was sponsored by the AMENA Center at UC Berkeley and supported by Stanford University’s Bio-X and the Stanford Genome Center. As a global startup competition where teams of college students in the pre-startup phase compete with their business plans,
  
with 11 teams from five universities—Handong University, Hanyang University, Kookmin University, Woosong University, and POSTECH—participating. Each team presented their business plan in English for seven minutes, followed by a seven-minute Q&A session with the judges.
 
The BeBody team presented a fitness service that uses body composition (InBody) data and a single photo to display the user’s current body and target physique as a 3D avatar. The team focused on the problem that users often lose motivation because physical changes take time to appear even after exercising, and proposed a service that combines a 3D target physique, exercise and diet tracking, D-day management, personalized workout plans, and an anonymous community feature. Unlike existing fitness apps that merely track workouts, the team highlighted its unique selling point: “showing users their future body before it actually changes.”

A slide from the BeBody team's presentation introducing the service's key features (3D body avatars, exercise and diet tracking, anonymous community, and personalized workout plans).

The business model offers basic features for free, while body modeling is available for free for the first three sessions; after that, users can either watch ads or subscribe for 2,900 won per month to remove ads. The team presented a roadmap to first validate market potential by running an initial beta service for approximately 24,700 current students at Kookmin University, then expand to partner gyms and trainers at domestic universities, and eventually enter the Asian and global markets in the long term.

Teams from Kookmin University (BeBody and Wheatfield) and their advisor, Professor Yoon Jong Yung of the College of Software Convergence, are posing for a commemorative photo on stage at the “Global Innovation Builders Forum 2026.”

Following the judging, first place went to Hanyang University’s “Pintal AI” team, second place to Kookmin University’s “BeBody” team, and third place to Woosong University’s “Byeol” team, while special awards were presented to Handong Global University’s “Jple” team and POSTECH’s “Green Cubed” team. The awards were presented as the “Dr. Hassanein I&E Award,” established jointly by the UC Berkeley AMENA Center and SV WIN to honor Dr. Ossama Hassanein’s spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship (I&E). The BeBody team received a cash prize of $2,000 along with certificates signed by Farzad Naimi, President of SV WIN; Dariush Zahedi, Director of the UC Berkeley AMENA Center; and Moon Kook-hyun, President of NPI. In his acceptance speech, Chairman Naimi noted that the BeBody team has a very high likelihood of growing into a “billion-dollar company.” At least two of the judges who heard the presentation expressed a desire to try the BeBody service themselves.
 
The event featured a welcome address by Park Sung-jin, President of Handong Global University, and a special lecture by Chairman Naimi titled “What It Takes to Succeed in Silicon Valley.” In the afternoon, a session titled “The Korean Startup Ecosystem and TIPS” was held, featuring speakers Lee Jong-hoon, President of the Korea Angel Investment Association; Han Jeong-hwa, Chairperson of the Korea Youth Entrepreneurship Foundation; Jeong Hoe-hoon, CEO of KAIST Youth Startup Investment Holdings; and Yoon Jong Yung, Professor at the College of Software Convergence at Kookmin University.