"Accelerators Are Partners That Reduce Startup Failures"

Interview with Lee Jun-bae, President of Korea Accelerator Association
Goal to Establish Fund Contributing to Private Investment Activation with 320 Registered Companies
Committed to Creating Value for Sustainable Growth as a Specialized Industry

Lee Jun-bae, president of the Korea Accelerator Association, says, "Accelerators are partners who help reduce the failure of startup companies and enable them to grow through VC investments." Photo by Korea Accelerator Association

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Heeyoon] As the excitement of the second venture boom intensifies, the early-stage startup investment ecosystem is rapidly growing. According to the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, as of last year, the amount of venture fund formation recorded 6.5676 trillion KRW, a 54.8% surge compared to the previous year, setting a new record high. While market interest is focusing beyond unicorn companies valued at over 1 trillion KRW to the venture capitalists (VCs) and accelerators that created them, Lee Jun-bae, president of the Korea Accelerator Association, explained, “Accelerators are partners who help reduce startup failures and support their growth through VC investments.”

Currently, there are 320 registered accelerators in Korea, with 85 of them being association members. The Korea Accelerator Association, launched in December 2017, was established mainly by private accelerators following the enactment of related laws that year. Regarding the role of the association, President Lee said, “We represent the position of accelerators in government policy-making related to venture investment while creating value to be recognized as an industry.”

In fact, within the startup ecosystem, accelerators play the role of supporters who help startups, especially founders, succeed. They are recognized as expert groups that discover and nurture talented founders, providing startup incubation, investment, and valuable networks, thereby establishing themselves as broad business partners that help startups grow to the next level.

President Lee is a precision machinery design expert from Geumseong Gyejeon (now LS Industrial Systems) and the youngest skilled Korean who represented the nation at the National Skills Competition. After resigning, he challenged entrepreneurship with seed money of 3 million KRW, founding JBL Co., Ltd., which grew into a company with annual sales of 10 billion KRW. As a design expert who emphasized the importance of technology more than anyone else, he established iBuilt, a subsidiary and research institute modeled after TechShop in the U.S. (a company providing spaces for prototyping designs such as welding, lathe, and milling), and then fully engaged in accelerator activities. He stated, “Just as TechShop makes prototypes for client companies and turns imagination into reality, I thought I should take charge of investment and incubation for startups to help them grow, which led me to challenge being an accelerator.”

The Role of Accelerators is to Help Minimize Failures of Early-Stage Companies

Since accelerators handle investment and incubation for startups, they bear the fate of proving their success through the success of their partners. President Lee said, “In fact, talking about the success of early-stage startups is not appropriate at our stage,” and defined, “Instead, the reason for the existence of accelerators is to minimize failures and help excellent startups connect to VCs or higher stages to grow.”

For startups dreaming of becoming unicorns, President Lee pointed out overseas expansion as essential. From both demand and supply perspectives, Korea’s market is too small. He said, “In a society where corporate value is proven by sales, our domestic market clearly has limitations, so to grow into a unicorn, companies must enter global markets with strong purchasing power and demand. However, rather than unconditional overseas expansion, it is necessary first to be evaluated in the local market in parallel.” He added, “The Accelerator Association will be a partner that accompanies startups so they do not forget their original intentions and so their dreams can become reality. We will continue efforts to create value in the startup ecosystem so that the industry can sustainably grow as a specialized sector.”

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