SK Ecoplant Launches Initiative to Discover Eco-Friendly Startups... "Fostering Unicorn Companies"

[Asia Economy Reporter Onyu Lim] SK Ecoplant announced on the 17th that it is recruiting startups with innovative technologies in the eco-friendly sector through 'SK Eco Innovators Y21' and will hold a pitching competition called 'SKIL (SK Innovation Lab) Demo Day' with the selected startups.

SK Ecoplant plans to nurture future eco-friendly unicorn companies by recruiting startups in the fields of eco-friendliness and renewable energy, and will hold the demo day in virtual reality through the metaverse. This event will be jointly participated by venture capital (VC) partners in the environmental sector, who will also provide technology development cooperation and investment to the selected startups. Any startup wishing to collaborate with SK Ecoplant or seeking investment can apply.

The recruitment fields are broadly divided into ▲eco-friendly and ▲renewable energy. The main evaluation criteria include seven items such as collaboration potential and synergy creation with SK Ecoplant, ESG (environment, social, governance), growth potential, and innovativeness.

The application period is from the 17th until the 5th of next month, and applications can be submitted through the startup platform InnoTalk. After document and interview evaluations, 10 startups will be finally selected, and on October 14th, a total prize of 10 million KRW will be awarded to the top three startups through the demo day. The demo day will be held in the metaverse in collaboration with Endotlight, a startup developing Korea’s top-level 3D programs.

The 10 selected startups will be designated as ‘SK Eco Innovators Y21’. Through the OTO (Otto) platform, which collaborates as one team with ecosystem stakeholders from the early stages of business, various cooperations such as collaboration linkage with SK Ecoplant and global partners, testbed and joint research opportunities, and expert mentoring will be provided.

SKIL is an organization that discovers and supports investments in eco-friendly companies domestically and internationally for SK Ecoplant. In June, SK Ecoplant was also finally selected by applying to the Ministry of Environment’s future environment business account in the '2021 Second Regular Investment Project of the Mother Fund' public offering by Korea Venture Investment Corp.

Kim Byung-kwon, head of SK Ecoplant’s OTO Center, said, "We will discover excellent startups in the eco-friendly sector and practice realizing a circular economy through nurturing environmental unicorn companies," adding, "We also plan to increase the number of outstanding startups through various tracks, including discovering global companies with the D.CAMP, a youth entrepreneurship support foundation established by the banking sector."

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