Selecting the Grand Champion of the Nation's Largest Startup Competition

'ComeUp 2020' Special Event: 'Challenge! K-Startup 2020' Grand Championship Held
Final Ranking Decided for 20 Teams Who Overcame 356:1 Competition Among 7,112 Teams

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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 20th that it will hold the 'Challenge! K-Startup 2020' Grand Championship as a special event of 'ComeUp 2020' at Layer 10 Studio located in Seongsu-dong.

'Challenge! K-Startup' is the largest-scale and highest-prize startup competition in Korea, operated for prospective entrepreneurs and startup founders with promising business ideas, discovering excellent startup teams and awarding prize money. This year marks the 5th edition, and following last year's collaboration with the Ministry of National Defense, Ministry of Education, and Ministry of Science and ICT, additional cooperation with the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, and the Korean Intellectual Property Office has been added, making it a joint competition involving 7 ministries, private sectors·and local governments. With the expansion of participating ministries, the number of teams recommended for the integrated finals has been increased from 152 to 180 to allow more entrepreneurs to participate.

Regarding the progress, for the 7,112 teams that applied for the preliminary league, document screening and non-face-to-face presentation auditions were conducted until September to select 180 teams advancing to the integrated finals of 'Challenge! K-Startup.' In the finals, 60 teams were selected from the 180 teams advancing to the integrated finals, and in the championship round, 20 teams were chosen from the 60 teams. As a result, 20 startup teams advanced to the grand championship after overcoming fierce competition with a ratio of 356 to 1.

The grand championship is a competition to determine the rankings and select awardees among the 20 teams that passed through 8 preliminary leagues, finals, and championship rounds. On the 20th, 10 existing startup teams and 10 prospective startup teams will present in the order of a draw. The Ministry plans to tally the final scores from professional judges and online audience evaluators on the afternoon of the 20th after all teams have finished their presentations, and rankings will be determined based on the final scores. The teams advancing to the grand championship will receive 20 awards including the Presidential Award and Prime Minister Award, along with a total prize money of 1.49 billion KRW (up to 300 million KRW). They will also receive various follow-up supports such as exemption from written evaluation for R&D startup growth technology development and exemption from document evaluation for preliminary, early-stage, and leap packages.

This year's 'Challenge! K-Startup 2020' grand championship will be broadcast overseas through the Ministry's YouTube channel, and more detailed information can be found on the 'ComeUp 2020' website.

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