Ministry of SMEs and Startups "Looking for K-Startups to Challenge Unicorn Status"

86% Overseas Expansion Last Year... Diverse Success Stories Including Investment Attraction
Support Including 60 Million KRW Business Funds and Local Office Space... Legal Consulting Also Provided

[Asia Economy Reporter Junhyung Lee] The Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced on the 7th that it is recruiting 120 venture and startup companies to challenge global scale-up at the K-Startup Center (KSC). The application period is until the 11th of next month.

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups will support the selected companies to enter advanced overseas startup ecosystems such as the United States, Sweden, and Singapore. After selecting a total of 120 companies, 60 will be finally selected following a 10-day market validation process.

The ministry explained that comprehensive and systematic support will be provided, including mentoring from global accelerators, support for attracting overseas investment, local commercialization funds, and open innovation linkage with local large corporations.

KSC is a platform that supports domestic startups' entry into overseas markets and settlement in local startup ecosystems centered on local bases. Despite COVID-19, 92 KSC companies challenged local market entry last year. More than 86% of supported companies succeeded in overseas expansion, including Jin Medicine, which attracted overseas investment, and Norma, which signed a business agreement (MOU) with local buyers for an expected sales scale of 17 billion KRW.

This year, KSC companies will be supported with a two-stage accelerating program for market validation and local settlement, local commercialization funds of 60 million KRW, office space at local centers, and legal and accounting consulting. In particular, the accelerating program is directly operated by local accelerators with specialized networks focusing on region-specific industries.

Selected companies will meet investors, partners, and government agencies online in May to refine their local entry strategies. Between July and October, they will participate in local programs to advance local relationships and promote overseas commercialization such as establishing local corporations according to each company's strategy.

The recruitment target is venture and startup companies with less than 10 years of business experience and investment achievements. Preference is given to companies in region-specific specialized industries. Companies selected for projects such as the 'K-Unicorn Project' or 'Green New Deal Promising 100' that have verified the scalability and technology of their business models may be exempted from investment attraction requirement reviews.

Companies wishing to participate can select their desired entry country on the K-Startup website and submit application documents including an English business plan. The selection process consists of two stages: a document review by a national evaluation committee composed of local accelerators and industry experts, and an online 1:1 English interview.

No Yongseok, Director of Global Growth Policy at the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, said, "Despite COVID-19 last year, our companies' active challenges led to successful overseas expansion stories," adding, "The Ministry of SMEs and Startups will actively support K-Startups to enter new markets and grow into global unicorns."

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