KIST and Venture Capital Association Selected as Exclusive Lead Agencies for 'Post-TIPS' Project

Starting This Year, Up to 500 Million KRW in Commercialization Funds and EXIT Specialized Program Support

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[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Cheol-hyun] The Ministry of SMEs and Startups (Minister Kwon Chil-seung, hereinafter referred to as the Ministry) announced on the 23rd that it has selected two dedicated lead organizations for the Post-TIPS project, which supports the scale-up of TIPS graduate companies. TIPS is a program jointly operated by the private sector and the government to discover and nurture startup companies.

The two newly selected lead organizations are the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) and the Korea Venture Capital Association. KIST, through a consortium with Korea University, Kyung Hee University, and others, possesses expertise centered on the bio and medical fields, including technology verification (PoC) and hospital testbed linkage support. Additionally, KIST plans to proceed with follow-up investments in participating companies through an investment agreement with K-Ground Ventures, the operator of Scale-up TIPS.

The Korea Venture Capital Association has strengths in attracting follow-up investments and supports detailed investment attraction programs such as registration on the online investment matching platform "Venture IR." Utilizing its own infrastructure, it also operates programs to strengthen global expansion, including networking with foreign investment institutions and support for establishing local corporations and investments, thereby supporting the global growth of participating companies.

The two selected lead organizations will complete agreements, personnel, and operational program establishment by March and will officially proceed with recruiting and selecting participating companies and operating the scale-up program from April. Starting this year, a new pathway has been established allowing Post-TIPS participating companies and successful TIPS companies to receive investment-linked guarantees from the Korea Technology Finance Corporation, enabling large-scale fundraising.

Post-TIPS is a follow-up project that has been operating since 2018, providing additional commercialization funds of up to 500 million KRW to support the smooth growth of TIPS graduate companies. Among the 78 companies that have completed support so far, visible results include sales increases of 410.6 billion KRW, 1,977 new jobs, and domestic and overseas new investments of 681.3 billion KRW.

Kang Shin-cheon, Director of the Technology Startup Division at the Ministry, said, "As the follow-up support after TIPS has been upgraded from simple commercialization funds to more specialized program support, we hope it will serve as a stepping stone for excellent startup companies to scale up in earnest."

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