What Is the Secret Behind Seongdong-gu Social Venture Hub Center Tenants Achieving Over 7 Billion KRW in Sales and Remarkable Success?

Despite the COVID-19 situation, achieved sales of over 7 billion KRW, a 13.2% increase from the previous year... Attracted private investment worth about 1.7 billion KRW, created 63 new jobs... Seongdong-gu formed the nation's first dedicated team and enacted social venture ordinances, sparing no effort to support the growth of hub center resident companies.

In June of last year, a video shooting space called 'Studio Seongsu,' a non-face-to-face content production space, was established for social venture resident companies.

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jong-il] Seongdong-gu (Mayor Jeong Won-oh) announced that the resident companies of the ‘Social Venture Hub Center’ have achieved sales of about 7 billion KRW, attracted private investments of about 1.7 billion KRW, and created 63 new jobs over the past year.

In particular, most of the resident companies are early-stage startups with fewer than 10 employees. Despite the ongoing COVID-19 situation last year making business management very difficult, sales increased by 13.2% (820 million KRW) compared to the previous year, based on creative ideas and technological capabilities.

They also attracted private investments worth 1.74 billion KRW and were selected for government (Ministry of SMEs and Startups) public projects such as the ‘Pre-Startup Package’ and ‘Global Startup Academy,’ recognizing their technological skills and growth potential.

Along with this, they created 63 new jobs by hiring local personnel for youth developers interested in social ventures, food distribution, and service provision, contributing to the revitalization of the local economy as social ventures.

To support the autonomous ecosystem formation of social ventures, the district established the nation’s first dedicated social venture team in 2017, enacted support ordinances, and made significant efforts to foster social venture companies.

In Seongsu-dong, which has formed an independent social innovation ecosystem where companies selling products and services with social significance, intermediary organizations supporting startups and management, and investment institutions come together, the ‘Social Venture Hub Center’ was established in August 2018 as a shared office on the 4th to 6th floors of the Ansimsangga Building. It houses 25 social venture companies that contemplate and solve various social issues such as local economic revitalization, climate and environmental improvement, youth career paths, childcare, and care problems.

Accordingly, last year, to reduce the economic burden on resident companies struggling due to COVID-19, the district waived basic management fees and reduced rent by 50% for some small-scale companies.

Additionally, various programs have been prepared to support the independence and growth of resident companies, including IR consulting and demo day events for attracting private investment, operating open offices for government project applications and technical consultations, supporting online mandatory legal education, launching SNS channels for social venture promotion and social value dissemination, and creating video shooting spaces.

Jeong Won-oh, Mayor of Seongdong-gu, said, “Despite the difficult situation due to COVID-19, we will continue to do our best for the resident companies of the Hub Center that are maintaining growth,” and added, “We will continuously strive to develop the Social Venture Hub Center into a comprehensive incubating space where social innovators can showcase their ideas.”

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