Pokde.Net has named three Korean deep-tech companies as its Media Pick winners at the FIX 2026 Innovation Awards Media Day, held at the EXCO exhibition centre in Daegu, South Korea. STM Corporation, Intellectus Corp. and GEOBOT were selected as the top three from 11 companies reviewed by Pokde.Net during the Future Innovation tech eXpo 2026 (FIX 2026), after Editor-in-Chief Mubashar Aftab met their teams on the show floor and assessed what each brings to a broader international audience.
The Media Day was co-hosted by the FIX 2026 Organizing Committee and official media partner AVING News, bringing together 13 international and domestic outlets with award-winning exhibitors for live demonstrations and direct Q&A sessions. This year’s FIX 2026 awards considered 209 entries through a 26-member expert panel and recognised 31 companies in total.
FIX 2026 Innovation Awards Media Picks: STM Corporation, Intellectus and GEOBOT
STM Corporation, based in Daegu, manufactures precision components that directly influence how vehicles sense and protect themselves. Its product line includes magnetised encoders, hub bearing seals, light strip seals and a range of sealing rings. According to the company, its parts are supplied to BMW, Audi, Volkswagen and Tesla, and it holds 58 patents across its technologies.
STM’s encoders track driving conditions with 160-pole precision, and its seals are engineered to pair strong protection with low torque. The company operates five factories in Daegu and holds IATF 16949 certification. It has also completed development of a dual-track encoder for steering and robotics, opening a second market beyond automotive. At FIX 2026, STM is exploring partnerships with robot manufacturers requiring durable bearings in moving parts.
Intellectus Corp. specialises in DDS middleware, the communication layer that enables sensors, controllers and software in robots, vehicles and factory systems to exchange data reliably and in real time. The company has spent seven years refining this technology, with a team of approximately 30 serving customers in national defence and robotics. LG is among its clients, along with a growing number of start-ups.
Alongside its licensed middleware, Intellectus offers int2DDS, an open-source contribution for the ROS 2 robotics community. The company is already running a smart factory pilot with a customer in Canada, positioning itself as a key infrastructure provider as robotics and software-defined machines expand across industries.
GEOBOT was founded just a year ago by a university researcher and has built an autonomous robot that combines LiDAR surface mapping with ground-penetrating radar to detect subsurface hazards. By repeating surveys over the same routes, the system compares data over time and flags subtle changes that can signal sinkholes, pipe leaks and other hidden dangers well before they become visible.
Pilots are already under way with a cultural heritage site and a water utility. GEOBOT is targeting construction sites as its first commercial market and is working toward production in early 2027, with AI-assisted analysis planned as the platform matures. Sinkholes and ageing underground infrastructure are recurring concerns in Malaysia and across Southeast Asia, making GEOBOT’s technology particularly relevant to the region.
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