"Growing the Korean Version of Google" ICT Startup Support Project Kicks Off

[Asia Economy Reporter Seolgina Jo] The Ministry of Science and ICT announced on the 10th that it will actively promote the ‘Public-Private Cooperation-Based ICT Startup Development’ project, where the government, large corporations, and policy financial institutions play a strong supportive role for promising ICT startups.

This project aims to jointly discover ICT startups and provide cooperative support for the next three years to accelerate the development of startups' core technologies and lead them to success in the market.

It is characterized by moving beyond the limitations of government-led startup support by actively utilizing the infrastructure of mentor companies to enhance the effectiveness of support. Additionally, the strategy is to secure future new growth engines by positioning startups as key players in forming an open innovation ecosystem.

The Ministry of Science and ICT will announce the project for 38 days from the 11th to April 17th, and after evaluation, select supported companies in June.

The support targets are ICT small and venture companies within five years of establishment that are currently receiving or have experience receiving support from startup support programs operated by large corporations. A total of 16 will be selected through an open call.

Selected companies will receive government R&D funding of 200 million KRW per project annually, totaling 500 million KRW over three years. In addition, the Korea Credit Guarantee Fund will provide financial support (guarantees) of up to 3 billion KRW after screening, enabling companies to fully focus on technology development and innovation without financial concerns.

In this process, large corporations will participate as mentor companies for the selected companies, actively supporting startups through technology and commercialization support, market access support, investment linkage, and providing testbeds by utilizing the infrastructure of their own startup support programs during the project period.

Choi Woo-hyuk, Director of the Information and Communication Industry Policy Bureau at the Ministry of Science and ICT, said, “This newly launched project this year will become a model public-private cooperation model where the government and large corporations utilize their respective strengths to simultaneously support R&D and incubation, enabling ICT startups to leap into high-growth companies.”

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