Mayor Park Won-soon Successfully Attracts $330 Million Investment from Promising Silicon Valley Companies to Seoul

Expecting Over 600 New Jobs Created
Establishment of 54 Big Data-Based Cloud Kitchens
Fruits of Innovation Startup Investment and Ecosystem Development

Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon is speaking at the Shared Bookstore event held before the 2020 Seoul Metropolitan Government New Year's Ceremony at Sejong Center for the Performing Arts in Jongno-gu, Seoul, on the 2nd. Photo by Kim Hyun-min kimhyun81@

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunju Lee] The Seoul Metropolitan Government has succeeded in attracting a total of $330 million (approximately 400 billion KRW) in foreign investment to Seoul from four promising companies in Silicon Valley, USA.

Park Won-soon, the Mayor of Seoul, who is visiting the United States, announced on the 12th that he signed memorandums of understanding (MOUs) with representatives of the four companies in Silicon Valley to secure these investments. The signing took place on the 10th (local time) at the KOTRA trade office in Silicon Valley.

The companies involved in the investment attraction include TIS, a big data-based cloud kitchen operation specialist, and three Korean venture companies (BuildBlock, Ryan Semiconductor, Palogen). TIS plans to invest a total of $200 million over the next five years to establish and operate 54 cloud kitchens within Seoul. They plan to hire a total of 417 full-time employees, including 114 research and development personnel. The three venture companies plan to invest a total of $30 million in Seoul to establish their respective research and development centers.

Mayor Park also signed an MOU with Plug and Play Tech Center, an accelerator that has produced companies such as PayPal and Dropbox. Through this, they will cooperate to build a startup nurturing cooperation system between Seoul and Silicon Valley, support startup investment attraction, and help open sales channels. Mayor Park also delivered a keynote speech promoting Seoul at a startup event hosted by Plug and Play.

Mayor Park said, "While continuously expanding foreign investment in Seoul, we will do everything possible to support our startups that wish to expand overseas to actively grow."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.