Ministry of SMEs and Startups Hosts 'Regulatory Sandbox Challenge'... Up to 500 Million KRW for Finalists

154 Companies Participate from 14 Cities and Provinces... 10 Companies Advance to Finals
Growth-Sharing Funds Up to 500 Million KRW... Mentoring Support for Companies Passing Regional Preliminaries

[Asia Economy Reporter Junhyung Lee] The Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced on the 2nd that it will hold the 'Regulatory Free Zone Challenge,' a commercialization idea contest based on demonstration projects, at the Sejong Convention Center located in Sejong.

The goal of the Regulatory Free Zone Challenge is to activate startups within the regulatory free zones and support the innovative growth of promising startups. Since implementing the regulatory free zone system in April 2019, the government has designated 28 zones across 14 cities and provinces. According to the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, the regulatory free zones have established themselves as forward bases for fostering regional new industries, leading the Korean New Deal and regional New Deals.

In the regional preliminaries held since June this year, 154 companies from 14 cities and provinces excluding the metropolitan area participated. Twenty-eight companies that received high scores in relevance to the zone projects, commercialization strategies, and corporate capabilities passed the regional preliminaries.

The Small and Medium Business Corporation conducted policy fund evaluations for the companies that passed the regional preliminaries and ultimately selected 10 companies as finalists. The 10 companies advancing to the finals consist of five startups and five zone project operators, who will present their startup and commercialization plans related to the zone projects on the day.

Four representatives from venture capital (VC) firms will attend the final evaluation. The Ministry of SMEs and Startups will select six companies as Challenge companies through the evaluation panel and award the Minister of SMEs and Startups Commendation. The remaining four companies will receive awards from the Korea Institute for Advancement of Technology and the Small and Medium Business Corporation President.

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups will support the 10 finalist companies with up to 500 million KRW in growth-sharing funds and commercialization mentoring. The commercialization mentoring will be conducted through regional Youth Startup Academy programs, supporting business model improvement and strengthening presentation skills for investment attraction.

The Ministry will also provide commercialization mentoring to the 28 companies that passed the regional preliminaries. If desired, these companies will be given opportunities to participate in existing zone demonstration projects.

Minister Kwon Chil-seung of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups said, "I thank many small businesses and startups for showing interest and passion during the regional preliminaries," adding, "We will further expand policy measures like the Regulatory Free Zone Challenge so that various new industries in the regulatory free zones can spread as a second venture boom."

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