Over 1,000 Young CEOs Graduate from Youth Startup Academy... "Generating Sales of 265.8 Billion Won"

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bo-kyung] The Small and Medium Business Corporation held the 11th Youth Startup Academy (Cheongchangsah) graduation ceremony on the 25th at the Seoul Youth Startup Academy in Mokdong, Seoul. To prevent the spread of COVID-19, the ceremony minimized on-site participation and was conducted simultaneously online and offline.

Cheongchangsah is a leading domestic startup support program that discovers outstanding entrepreneurs with promising items and innovative technologies, providing up to 100 million KRW in commercialization funds along with education, coaching, office space, and prototype production support all at once.

On this day, 1,044 representatives of 11th batch youth startup companies graduated. These early-stage companies within three years of establishment achieved sales of 265.8 billion KRW, employment of 3,548 people, and investment attraction of 22.8 billion KRW last year.

Since its opening in 2011, including the 11th batch graduating today, a total of 5,842 entrepreneurs have passed through Cheongchangsah, and two unicorn companies have emerged. In 2018, Viva Republica (CEO Lee Seung-geon, 2nd batch), which operates the Toss service, and last year, Zigbang (CEO Ahn Sung-woo, 1st batch) were named unicorn companies.

The graduation ceremony included ▲awards for outstanding graduate companies ▲support messages from senior companies ▲Startup Pitching Festa championship ▲online exhibition hall.

Among the outstanding graduate company awards, 14 people including CEO Jung Geun-sik of Constant, which provides self scalp measurement and hair loss prediction solutions, received the Minister of SMEs and Startups Award, and 12 people including CEO Jo Yoon-gi of Market of Material, which operates a big data-based plant material O2O brokerage platform, received the Chairman of the Small and Medium Business Corporation Award.

The five companies Sejong CI, JND Cosmetic, Colosseum Corporation, Spring Onward, and Badapumae, which advanced to the Startup Pitching Festa championship, made IR presentations to investors.

Kim Hak-do, Chairman of the Small and Medium Business Corporation, promised, "We will actively support startup companies to grow into unicorn companies using Cheongchangsah as a stepping stone and to lead the startup ecosystem."

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