Mayor Oh Se-hoon Visits Seoul Startup Hub... Youth Startup Meeting

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] On the 21st, Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon will visit the Seoul Startup Hub, Seoul's startup support center and a cradle for nurturing domestic startups, to hold a meeting with young startup entrepreneurs.

The Seoul Startup Hub serves as the central point connecting 45 startup support organizations within Seoul, playing a pivotal role in supporting startups throughout the city. It is responsible for comprehensive support from discovering promising startups to investment, nurturing, and global expansion. Since its opening in 2017, it has attracted investments totaling 112.4 billion KRW and achieved sales of 154.3 billion KRW. It has also created 2,150 jobs. Currently, a total of 93 startup companies are housed there.

During the election period, Mayor Oh announced plans to more than triple the number of Seoul's unicorn companies, which currently stand at seven, through step-by-step customized startup support policies that actively utilize Seoul's startup infrastructure and private sector expertise.

On this day, Mayor Oh will observe a demonstration of an AI-based quarantine and guidance robot developed by Zeta Bank, one of the resident startup companies, in the lobby. He will then tour key facilities of the Seoul Startup Hub, including the Kitchen Incubator and Product Commercialization Support Center.

Furthermore, he will move to the lounge on the first floor of the annex to hold a meeting with representatives of young startups rooted in the Seoul Startup Hub. He will listen to their challenges, hardships, and success stories, and seek ways to qualitatively innovate the youth startup environment. The meeting will be attended by five young startup representatives, including Oh Sang-hoon, CEO of Luxrobo, which succeeded in entrepreneurship based on Seoul's 'Youth Startup 1000 Project' and was selected as one of the 'Top 100 Robot Startup Companies in the World.'

The Youth Startup 1000 Project is a representative youth startup initiative launched in 2009 by Mayor Oh Se-hoon to address youth unemployment triggered by the global financial crisis and to shift the job creation paradigm from employment to entrepreneurship.

Through the Youth Startup 1000 Project, Seoul annually selects around 1,000 young people in their 20s and 30s who have startup ideas but lack funds and infrastructure, providing them with startup capital and space. It also offers opportunities for those who have failed in startups within three years and wish to try again to get back on their feet.

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