NEW YORK, NY, May 13, 2024 – This week ScreenGeni.us was one of just six finalists selected out of 250+ entries in the Samsung Next 2024 Generative AI Hackathon in New York City. 

Samsung Next is the venture capital and startup acceleration arm of the Samsung Group, one of the largest technology conglomerates in the world. The investment group is focused on identifying and investing in “the boldest and most ambitious founders” of early-stage technology startups across various sectors, including AI, Healthtech, Consumer Services (media, gaming, fintech, etc.), and Frontier Technology. 

The GenAI Hackathon is an annual competition in which founders pursuing the imagined and impossible are invited to share bold ideas that leverage generative AI to build experiences, interfaces, or behaviors with the potential to engage a global audience. This year, the competition had two tracks under consideration: Health & Wellness and Mediatech. 

Hundreds of startups applied this year, but only six finalists were selected to pitch investors from leading venture firms, including Union Square Ventures, Intel Capital, Comma Capital, Flybridge, and Samsung Next. 

As a finalist, ScreenGeni.us had the opportunity to not only pitch the concept of a generative AI-powered viewing assistant to this panel of investors, but also to demo a working prototype that illustrated in real time how the ScreenGeni.us recommendation engine simplifies the streaming experience and helps anyone decide what to watch.

Among the outstanding founders, engineers, designers, and storytellers present, ScreenGeni.us placed 2nd in the Mediatech category. 

The competition was an invaluable experience that facilitated feedback on ScreenGeni.us’s working prototype, challenged and refined the company’s thinking, and connected the team with experienced investors at Samsung Next and other leading venture firms. Furthermore, it highlighted the stellar engineering, product design, marketing and operations talent at the center of ScreenGeni.us.