LH Announces '2020 LH Social Venture Support Project' Competition

2020 LH Social Venture Support Project Contest Poster (Provided by LH)

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Chun-hee] Korea Land and Housing Corporation (LH) announced on the 25th that it is recruiting teams to participate in the '2020 LH Social Venture Support Project' to support the startup and growth of social ventures aimed at solving social problems. The application period is until the 8th of next month.

Since 2015, LH has been implementing the Social Venture Support Project to establish sustainable partnerships with social ventures pursuing social value and solving social issues such as youth independence and job creation. Over the past five years, LH has discovered and supported 96 social ventures, and this year, it will select and support a total of 35 teams: 20 teams in the startup support category and 15 teams in the growth support (scale-up) category.

The startup support category targets prospective entrepreneurs aged 19 to 39 or newly established startups less than three years old who have business ideas but face difficulties due to lack of funds or expertise. The 20 selected teams will receive 10 million KRW in the first year and, after a promotion review, can receive up to 40 million KRW over two years in stages.

The growth support category targets new public interest projects by social economy organizations related to LH’s work, such as urban regeneration and housing welfare. The 15 selected teams will be provided with up to 70 million KRW in project funds for one year to offer opportunities to discover innovative projects.

LH plans to continue efforts to establish sustainable partnerships with social ventures by operating follow-up support programs since last year to help continuous growth even after the support project.

Teams wishing to apply can fill out the application form provided on the LH Social Venture website and submit it via email. The final selected teams will be announced on the website in July.

Jung Nari, head of LH’s Social Contribution Division, said, "Despite the COVID-19 crisis, we will do our best to support social venture entrepreneurs so that they do not lose courage, solve social problems, and continuously operate their businesses."

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