Jeonnam Province to Support Startups with Customized Growth Funding of 187.6 Billion Won

[Muan=Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters, Reporter Yoon Jamin] Jeonnam Province is making every effort to revitalize the startup ecosystem for (prospective) entrepreneurs and re-entrepreneurs who are struggling with startup difficulties due to COVID-19.

On the 14th, the province announced that it will support a total of 187.6 billion KRW across 54 projects this year and plans to expand startup infrastructure by cooperating with 32 startup support organizations within the province.

To expand startup infrastructure, the province operates the Jeonnam Startup Support Integrated Platform ‘Jeonnam Eutteum Startup,’ which provides startup information and community spaces from 32 organizations within the province.

They have also formed a team of 150 startup expert mentors to provide one-on-one mentoring and support commercialization through startup support projects, market access support, and investment attraction.

To broaden the base of startups, they will additionally establish maker spaces?community-based creative activity spaces where anyone can easily implement and share ideas?and promote various support measures for startup activation such as inducing new commercialization linked to university clubs and providing residence spaces for prospective solo entrepreneurs.

Also, within the first half of this year, they will establish a comprehensive startup support plan and build a new business startup academy focused on promising items in the western region, following the one attracted to the eastern region (Suncheon) as a project of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups in May last year.

Along with this, they will actively support re-entrepreneurship through idea verification, the creation of startup investment funds linked to New Deal projects, and startup activation projects connected with universities such as technology holding companies.

Since 2015, the province has introduced a full-cycle startup support process including talent discovery, startup support, growth support, and market access support, operating a systematic startup management system.

As a result, as of 2019, there were about 32,000 startup companies in the province, accounting for 15.3% of the national startup rate, ranking 7th nationwide. Also, as of 2018, the number of closed businesses in the province was about 27,000, accounting for only 10.6% of the national closure rate, ranking the lowest at 17th.

Although Jeonnam has a lower closure rate compared to other regions, various startup infrastructure developments are urgently needed to settle high-tech talents and youth startups.

Accordingly, last year, the province held three growth promotion investment briefings connecting five funds it operates with local startups, and invested 33.94 billion KRW (61.4%) out of the 55.25 billion KRW fund established since 2015 for fostering venture and startup companies into 34 companies as investment funds.

Joo Soon-seon, Director of the Economic Energy Bureau of Jeonnam Province, said, “We will provide optimized customized services from incubation to market access for (prospective) entrepreneurs struggling with startup activities due to COVID-19 to lead successful startups.”

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