Lotte Ventures Supports 13 Startups Carrying Forward Youth Entrepreneurship Spirit to Expand Overseas

Lotte Group to Hold Memorial Concert and Events on April 3rd for Honorary Chairman Shin Kyuk-ho's 100th Birthday Anniversary

Lotte Ventures held the 'Lotte Youth Startup Ceremony' on the 3rd and selected 13 startups participating in the 'Global Accelerator' program for awards.

[Asia Economy Reporter Jo In-kyung] Lotte Group announced on the 4th that a commemorative concert honoring the dreams, challenges, and passion of founder Shin Kyuk-Ho was held on the 3rd at the Jamsil Lotte Concert Hall, attended by family members and employees.

Before the concert began, a commemorative video was screened, featuring a tribute music piece arranged by singer Kim Hyun-chul based on the song "April Song" (lyrics by Park Mok-wol), known as a favorite of the founder during his lifetime. The interview video included figures connected to the founder, such as former WBA champion Hong Soo-hwan, 7-dan Go player Cho Sang-yeon, Professor Kwon Sung-won of CHA University, and Park Young-gil, the first manager of the Lotte Giants, who reminisced about their experiences with the founder.

The concert began with the premiere of a memorial piece composed by Jo Eun-hwa, a professor at the Hans Eisler School of Music in Germany, dedicated to founder Shin Kyuk-Ho. The melody was created using six notes derived from the founder’s English initials (Shin Kyuk-Ho), adding special meaning to the memorial composition.

Conductor Jeong Chi-yong led the Gyeonggi Philharmonic Orchestra in performing the memorial piece as well as the overture "Calm Sea and Happy Voyage," which is a musical adaptation of two poems by Goethe with the same title. Additionally, pianist Sunwoo Yekwon performed Tchaikovsky’s "Piano Concerto No. 1," followed by a performance by soprano Shin Young-ok.

On the 3rd, conductor Jeong Chi-yong, pianist Sunwoo Yekwon, and the Gyeonggi Philharmonic Orchestra performed together at Lotte Concert Hall in Songpa-gu, Seoul, playing a memorial piece for Shin Kyuk-ho, the founder of Lotte Group, as well as Tchaikovsky's "Piano Concerto No. 1."

Earlier that morning, Lotte Ventures held a "Youth Entrepreneurship Ceremony" at Lotte World Tower, selecting and awarding 13 startups participating in the "Global Accelerator" program. The Global Accelerator program, which inherits the founder’s spirit of challenge as a "first-generation global young entrepreneur," supports promising startups in expanding overseas and is conducted in partnership with "82Startup," a key player in the Korean entrepreneur ecosystem in Silicon Valley. A total of 308 startups applied for the program, resulting in a competition ratio of about 24 to 1.

Lotte Ventures selected three grand prize winners (each receiving 100 million KRW) and ten excellence awardees (each receiving 20 million KRW) based on criteria such as global competitiveness, willingness to expand overseas, and growth potential. In January next year, the selected startups will have the opportunity to experience Silicon Valley firsthand, and additional investments of up to 2.5 billion KRW are also being considered.

Lee Ki-ha, CEO of 82 Startup, said in his congratulatory speech, "I hope many Korean startups will challenge the global market just like founder Shin Kyuk-Ho’s global entrepreneurship story." Lee Chun-woo, chairman of the Entrepreneurship Society, added, "Founder Shin Kyuk-Ho’s refusal to settle for success in Japan at the time and his contribution to improving the lives of the people through investment in his homeland serve as a model for startups that will grow in the future."

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