Ministry of SMEs and Startups Opens Applications for Preliminary Startup Package Participants... Up to 100 Million KRW Support

[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Hyewon] Opportunities for entrepreneurship have opened up for young and middle-aged individuals with sparkling ideas, innovative technology, and creative content.

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced that from the 31st, it will recruit prospective entrepreneurs to participate in the Preliminary Startup Package project, which provides up to 100 million KRW in commercialization funds to those preparing to start a business.

The Preliminary Startup Package is a program that supports prospective entrepreneurs with innovative technology startup ideas by providing a package of commercialization funds (up to 100 million KRW), startup education, mentoring, and more to facilitate smooth early-stage business commercialization.

This year, the support scale is a total of 1,700 people. First, 1,100 prospective entrepreneurs in the general field, who can apply regardless of industry, will be selected. Specialized fields such as the 4th Industrial Revolution, tourism, women, and social ventures will be announced additionally in March.

In particular, starting this year, the eligibility has been expanded to all ages (previously under 39), and the application criteria have been relaxed to those who have not started a business as of the announcement date (previously those without prior startup experience), providing more participation opportunities for prospective entrepreneurs struggling with lack of funds.

The detailed application qualifications allow anyone without startup experience or who does not own a business under their name as of the announcement date to apply regardless of age. However, those with prior business closure experience can only apply if starting a business in a different industry’s product or service field.

The recruitment of general field prospective entrepreneurs will be conducted by 36 hosting institutions (19 Creative Economy Innovation Centers and 17 universities). Applicants must submit a business plan for their startup item to the hosting institution.

The evaluation will be based on documents and presentations covering motivation for developing the startup item, commercialization strategy, market entry and performance creation strategy, and the capabilities of the representative and team members. Final selections will be made in order of highest scores according to the support scale of each hosting institution.

Applications are open until 6 PM on March 2nd via the K-Startup website.

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