Which 'K-Unicorns' Are Newly Spotlighted This Year?

43 Companies Apply for the 2nd Round of 2020 Preliminary Unicorn Special Guarantee

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[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Cheol-hyun] The Ministry of SMEs and Startups (Minister Park Young-sun, hereinafter referred to as the Ministry) announced on the 1st that a total of 43 companies applied for the 'Pre-Unicorn Special Guarantee,' which closed for applications on September 22. The 'Pre-Unicorn Special Guarantee' is a core project of the government's 'K-Unicorn Project,' aimed at realizing the four major venture powerhouse countries. The Ministry plans to select about 15 companies for the second round of the Pre-Unicorn Special Guarantee and support their growth into world-leading unicorn companies. Each pre-unicorn company can receive a special guarantee of up to 10 billion KRW.

Regarding the application status, 43 companies applied, recording a competition rate of 2.9 to 1. Through the citizen recommendation system introduced this year, a total of 11 companies were recommended, of which 3 applied. Thirty companies (69.8%) in future-leading new technology fields of the 4th Industrial Revolution, such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), system semiconductors, and biohealth, applied, marking a 16.3 percentage point increase compared to last year's application rate (53.5%). Promising companies in the non-face-to-face sector, which will lead the post-COVID-19 era (72.1%), increased by 7.8 percentage points compared to last year. This reflects the accelerated transition from face-to-face to non-face-to-face economy, with promising ventures and startups in this sector emerging as pivotal players in our economy.

Looking at the investment scale of the applicant companies, three companies (7.0%) are in the early growth stage with venture investment amounts under 5 billion KRW, while 25 companies (about 60%) out of the total 43 applicants have attracted venture investments of 10 billion KRW or more. This indicates that companies entering the full-scale scale-up stage applied most frequently for the Pre-Unicorn Special Guarantee.

For the applicant companies, after eligibility review and document screening, the Korea Technology Finance Corporation will conduct technology evaluations starting in October. Subsequently, through guarantee screening and a final evaluation committee composed of a citizen review panel and experts, the support targets will be selected in December. The citizen review panel participating in the final evaluation of this application will be selected by receiving applications from 200 panel members chosen in the first half for the 'K-Unicorn Project,' with 60 members to be selected by the end of October.

Lee Ok-hyung, Head of the Venture Innovation Policy Division at the Ministry, said, "Many promising ventures and startups aspiring to become unicorn companies leading the post-COVID-19 era have applied," adding, "We will do our best to ensure that companies capable of becoming global innovative unicorns are selected strictly and fairly."

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