Seoul City Selects Women Craft Startup Companies to Lead K-Craft... Support from Startup to Marketing Provided

29 Next-Generation Women Craft Startup Companies Move into Craft Center, Overcoming High Demand and 3:1 Competition Ratio

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] On the 7th, the Seoul Metropolitan Government announced that it has selected 29 prospective and early-stage women craft startup companies that will change the landscape of K-Craft in the era of the 4th Industrial Revolution, providing them with residency space within the Seoul Women’s Craft Center and supporting their sales channels and marketing.

Among 100 applicants, a panel of 10 judges composed of experts in crafts, distribution, startups, and design evaluated the candidates based on craft suitability, growth potential, and innovation, selecting a total of 29 companies. The selected companies expanded into new fields beyond traditional crafts such as metal, textiles, and ceramics, including eco-friendly new material product manufacturers using ‘expanded ceramics’ responding to the 4th Industrial Revolution era, companies that reinterpret tradition in a modern way by incorporating 3D printing technology, and companies combining DIY kits with video content.

Opened in 2017, the Seoul Women’s Craft Center has been promoting projects that support the growth of craft entrepreneurs and citizens’ creative and production activities, graduating 143 companies with over 90% maintaining their startups. Despite the COVID-19 situation, it has continuously expanded new distribution trends and sales channels through collaborations such as supplying institutional goods, developing museum cultural products, and partnering with Lotte Department Store.

The Seoul Metropolitan Government plans to focus on strengthening the management capabilities of prospective and early-stage women craft entrepreneurs. At the makerspace ‘Craft Farm’ within the center, resident companies are supported in directly developing new products and testing their marketability through practical sales processes.

Kim Seon-soon, Director of the Women and Family Policy Office of Seoul, said, “With the recent increase in single-person households and new consumption trends emphasizing individual preferences among the MZ generation, the craft industry is gaining attention as a creative labor market in an era of growth without employment,” adding, “We will systematically support the discovery of innovative women craft entrepreneurs and help them grow to revitalize the craft industry.”

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