K-Startup Nordic Expansion Kicks Off... KSC to Be Established in Sweden in June

Photo by K-Startup website

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Daeseop] The Ministry of SMEs and Startups plans to establish the Korea Startup Center (KSC) in Sweden this June. This is the first time that the KSC, a base for domestic innovative companies to expand overseas, will be established in Northern Europe. However, due to the rapid spread of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) mainly in Europe, there is a possibility that the establishment schedule may be delayed.

According to the Ministry of SMEs and Startups on the 25th, the KSC, which is scheduled to be set up within the startup space "Epicenter" located in Stockholm, Sweden, is a shared office-type space that supports domestic startups and venture companies in entering the Northern European startup ecosystem. It will serve as a place for communication and exchange with local startups and investors, as well as an overseas base that promotes open innovation with global large corporations.

Sweden is a startup powerhouse that has produced more than nine unicorn companies (unlisted startups valued at over 1 trillion KRW) and is a country where social ventures combining startups and social enterprises are highly developed. In this sense, establishing the KSC in Sweden is significant as it builds a foothold for Korean innovative companies to enter Europe and the global market.

This KSC establishment is a follow-up measure to the Korea-Sweden startup cooperation agreement signed during President Moon Jae-in's Northern Europe tour last June.

Park Young-sun, Minister of SMEs and Startups, previously stated during a meeting with Swedish government and corporate officials who visited Korea last December, "The establishment of the KSC in Sweden marks the beginning of a very special relationship between Korea and Sweden. We plan to make it a platform where our startups deeply integrate into the local startup ecosystem and where startups from both countries can achieve mutual win-win through active networking."

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups plans to appoint a center director who is a local expert in Sweden. To this end, they will recruit a center director and an operations manager to oversee KSC operations. Startup support experts with local startup networks in Sweden can apply regardless of nationality.

The Ministry will accept applications via email until the 9th of next month and select the center director and operations manager through document screening and video interviews. By operating with local expert personnel, they plan to build a local partner network with Swedish investors and related organizations and establish a foundation to support the global scale-up of promising startups and venture companies.

The Ministry has been promoting the establishment of KSCs in several countries since last year to foster unicorn companies through the globalization of domestic startups. KSC is an overseas expansion platform that supports the global scale-up of promising startups and venture companies. It offers one-stop support of "space-investment-incubation-network connection" for companies prepared for overseas expansion.

In particular, it is characterized as a support base that can cooperate with local innovation actors (startups and venture capital, etc.). It discovers promising startups and provides various networking programs such as local acceleration, demo day hosting, and consulting.

Since the first KSC was established in Seattle, USA, in August last year, it also opened in New Delhi, India, in September of the same year. In Tel Aviv, Israel, it operates only local acceleration programs without an office to support the globalization of domestic startups and venture companies. This year, with a KSC support budget of 8 billion KRW, additional innovation bases will be established in Sweden, Finland, and Singapore.

A Ministry of SMEs and Startups official said, "We will support the successful overseas expansion of startup companies through systematic globalization support," but also noted, "If the spread of COVID-19 prolongs, there may be changes to the schedule for establishing the KSC planned for this year."

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