Daegu City Focuses 55 Billion KRW on Innovative Startups ... "Fostering K-Unicorns through Scale-up"

Operation of 11 Public Startup Funds with 173.4 Billion KRW, 10 Billion KRW Regional Investment Within the Year

The photo shows DB Financial Investment signing a business agreement with Korea Venture Investment Corp. on October 22, 2020, to foster unicorn companies (venture companies valued at over 1 trillion won) and to revitalize the investment recovery market. [Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters, Reporter Park Dong-wook] Daegu City announced on the 27th that it will focus on supporting 55 billion KRW this year to foster 'K-Unicorns' through the scale-up of innovative startup companies in response to the new industrial ecosystem era brought about by the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19).

Centered on the Daegu Creative Economy Innovation Center and through 31 support organizations, Daegu City, which has produced about 300 technology and venture startups annually, is strengthening support at each startup stage through 32 locations and 872 incubation spaces, including the Daegu Samsung Creative Campus.

Last year, Daegu City raised 11 startup support funds totaling 173.4 billion KRW and invested 65.8 billion KRW in 233 local startup companies, aiming to help companies that had planned to relocate to the metropolitan area secure investment funds and settle in the region.

Since officially starting to nurture startup companies in 2015, Daegu City achieved visible results last year, with three companies (Astrogen, ThreeEye, Prinker Korea) selected as Baby Unicorns by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, and one company (Aimt) selected as a prospective unicorn. A unicorn refers to a newly established venture company valued at over 1 trillion KRW.

University Startup Club Idea Exchange 'Clutch' Project Promotion

Based on these achievements, Daegu City will invest 55 billion KRW in 63 projects this year for innovative startups, focusing on ▲startup activation ▲strengthening startup capabilities ▲scale-up support ▲and strengthening the startup investment ecosystem.

To promote planned startups through startup activation, the Daegu Creative Economy Innovation Center is promoting the Clutch project, a platform for idea exchange led by university startup clubs in the region, supporting youth startups through this. The 'Clutch project' is a youth idea discovery program meaning to step up from the preliminary idea stage.

As a pilot project to nurture high value-added future new industry startups, Daegu City, together with Korea Gas Corporation, supports the discovery and capability enhancement of 20 Green New Deal startups. In particular, the 'Enterprise Growth Support Center' was opened in Dongdaegu Venture Valley as a specialized startup incubation center to strengthen technology startup capabilities and foster global star ventures.

Through the scale-up support programs such as the Star Venture Nurturing Project and Daegu TIPS (Tech Incubator Program for Startup), promising companies will be discovered and continuously supported with customized packages. Additionally, starting this year, the 'K-Unicorn Entry TF' will be operated to help many startups receive government project support for entry into the Ministry of SMEs and Startups' Baby Unicorn and prospective unicorn programs.

Pre-IPO Support for High-Growth Startups

Furthermore, Daegu City plans to support Pre-IPO for high-growth startups preparing for IPO on the Korea Exchange, aiming to produce the first startup-supported listed company next year.

To revitalize the poor regional investment ecosystem currently concentrated in the metropolitan area, networking among private investors such as venture capital (VC), accelerators (AC), and angel clubs (including individual investors) is being strengthened.

Also, a public startup fund totaling 173.4 billion KRW across 11 funds is operated for local startups that have difficulty attracting growth-stage investment funds. Last year, three funds including the POST-Corona Startup Venture Fund (worth 38.45 billion KRW) were established, and this year, with a seed money of 10 billion KRW, the discovery and investment in startup companies will be further accelerated.

Information related to Daegu City's innovative startup support project application periods and more can be found at the Daegu Startup Hub.

Kim Tae-woon, Director of the Job Investment Bureau of Daegu City, emphasized, "As a result of efforts to create an innovative startup ecosystem, we have achieved quantitative growth in technology and venture startups along with the establishment of startup infrastructure," adding, "Furthermore, we will do our best to expand scale-up support for promising companies so that the first K-Unicorn startup supported by startup assistance can emerge from the region."

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