Seoul Smart City Center, Fostering Post-Corona Non-Face-to-Face Businesses... Recruiting Resident Companies

Start of 'Incubating Program' Supporting Non-Face-to-Face Product and Service Development and Commercialization
Free Support for Entire Process Including Residency, Expert Consulting, Prototype Production, and Marketing... Apply by the 3rd of Next Month

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] The ‘Seoul Smart City Center’ within the Seoul Digital Foundation will launch an ‘incubating program’ this year to nurture ‘contactless’ technology companies.

According to Seoul City on the 24th, as contactless technology has emerged as a trend during the COVID-19 pandemic and the market value and development prospects of related industries are growing, the center will select companies with sufficient growth potential and provide comprehensive support from residency to expert consulting, prototype production, and marketing. All support is free of charge.

The Seoul Smart City Center will also expand support for companies through the ‘Urban Technology Laboratory (Tech-Lap),’ a prototype production support space operated by the center. Among the prototypes developed in the lab, excellent products and services with high commercialization potential will be carefully selected and promoted in partnership with private crowdfunding companies for funding and publicity.

To this end, the Seoul Digital Foundation is recruiting resident companies (5 companies) to participate in the ‘incubating program’ for nurturing contactless technology and service companies. The final resident companies will be selected in March, and residency will take place from late March to early April.

Any small and venture companies, prospective entrepreneurs, venture capital (VC), or associations located in Seoul dealing with contactless technology, services, and smart city fields can apply. The selected companies will be provided with free office space within the center until the end of this year. They will also have free access to facilities and spaces within the center, such as the ‘Urban Technology Laboratory (Tech-Lap)’ and meeting rooms. Support for using digital collaboration tools such as project management and internal communication platforms will also be provided.

Furthermore, starting in April, the ‘Ontact Funding Support Project’ will begin to help the successful market entry of products and services in the contactless and smart city fields. Both resident and non-resident companies can receive support.

The Ontact Funding Support Project is a program that helps excellent products and services discovered through the center’s ‘Urban Technology Laboratory (Tech-Lap)’ receive funding by linking them with private crowdfunding companies.

The Seoul Digital Foundation plans to select 15 companies through a public contest in April and, together with crowdfunding companies, provide customized promotion specialized for contactless products and services, IR coaching, funding design consulting, and education on funding success strategies.

Lee Won-mok, Acting Chairman of the Seoul Digital Foundation, said, “As contactless has become a daily routine due to COVID-19, fostering the contactless industry based on digital technology has emerged as an urgent task. We will provide thorough support throughout the entire process so that companies with innovative technology and ideas can move in and prepare for Seoul’s future together.”

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