In January, I got under the skin of LG Nova -- electronics and appliances giant LG's internal startup incubator -- and its search for a different way of doing a corporate accelerator. Today, NOVA (short for North American Innovation Center) is announcing the 20 startups it selected as part of its Mission for the Future global challenge competition. The companies represent new developments in the areas of Connected Health, Energizing Mobility, Smart Lifestyle, the Metaverse and "Innovation for Impact," which the company describes as a general “socially impactful” tech category.

Each of these 20 companies will receive $100,000 each to work with LG to create a business framework for running a pilot with LG's accelerator.

"Over the last few months, our work with the First 50 startups has helped us continue to refine our vision for the future as we look at new areas of growth for LG," LG Electronics Senior VP for Innovation Dr. Sokwoo Rhee, who I also interviewed in January, said in an email. “We’re inspired by all of those who have participated to date with groundbreaking, thoughtful tech innovations to drive and contribute to our collaborative community and guiding principle of ‘outside-in’ innovation. With this announcement, we’re sharing the results of our ongoing work in engaging with the startup and entrepreneur community to create impactful technologies that will lead society into the future."

Moving forward to the next phase in the areas of "Smart Lifestyles and Innovation for Impact," LG Nova selected companies that "represent different aspects of people’s changing priorities on simplifying life and living better with personalized services":

• Digbi, a healthcare-related company exploring the area of gut and genetic microbiome.

• a.kin, AI for the smart home designed to alleviate tasks for the medically challenged homes.

• Chefling is a smart kitchen assistant that offers recipes to cook based on ingredients from your groceries receipts.