Ministry of SMEs and Startups to Discover and Foster 'Strong Small Business Owners'... Up to 100 Million KRW Business Fund Support

Creators, Startups, and More Join as Specialized Accelerating Institutions for Product Advancement

Asia Economy DB=Photo by Honam Moon munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bo-kyung] The Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced on the 28th that it will promote the 'Strong Small Business Growth Support Project,' which fosters differentiated products and services unique to small business owners.

This newly established project this year focuses on discovering and nurturing capable small business owners who produce scarce value in small quantities and various types through convergence and collaboration among creators, startup companies, and small business owners.

The selection and support process consists of ▲selecting promising small business owners through a step-by-step competitive method over about eight months ▲providing up to 100 million KRW in funds to advance the project based on potential and performance.

For small business owners selected through document and interview evaluations, team building is conducted to select 100 teams, and through about three months of education and mentoring, 30 teams are selected to receive up to 50 million KRW in commercialization funds.

Subsequently, after a pitching evaluation involving a professional judging panel and a public judging panel, 10 teams are finally selected, and they receive an additional scale-up fund of up to 50 million KRW.

The application fields are ▲Creator Collaboration Type (product/service design, packaging advancement, etc.) ▲Startup Collaboration Type (product/service platformization, new product development technology, etc.) ▲Small Business Owner Collaboration Type (collaboration with small business owners in other industries to increase sales and expand distribution channels, etc.), and creators and startup companies in each field are also recruited together.

When small business owners select their desired field, the operating institutions match them with field-specific professional mentors to support team formation, and small business owners who have already completed team formation can also apply.

Operating institutions include capable professional accelerating organizations such as NP15 Partners, Small Business Hope Foundation, Gyeonggi Center for Creative Economy and Innovation, and Jeju Center for Creative Economy and Innovation.

Each institution utilizes its human and physical infrastructure to provide participating small business owners with nurturing spaces, direct and indirect investments, O2O platform entry, and various follow-up support.

Detailed project announcements can be found on the official website of the 2022 Strong Small Business Growth Support.

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