Seoul City Invests 38.3 Billion KRW in New Growth Technologies... Budget Focused on Fintech and Bio-Medical Fields

First Introduction of Seoul-type TIPS with Market Price Matching Investment When Private Investors Invest in Promising Companies... Activating Private Investment
Expanding Seoul Innovation Challenge to 5 Times a Year to Discover Technologies... Accelerating Commercialization by Matching Large Corporations with SMEs and Ventures, Linking to Investment Attraction

Seoul Bio Hub

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] The Seoul Metropolitan Government and the Seoul Business Agency will concentrate a technology development (R&D) budget of 38.3 billion KRW this year to drive the creation of new jobs in Seoul and leap toward the future economy. The city plans to provide more strategic support for technology development (R&D) to strengthen the competitiveness of local companies amid the rapidly advancing era of technological competition.

According to Seoul City on the 27th, the city will first focus 13.9 billion KRW, which is 36% of the total 38.3 billion KRW budget, on sectors such as Yeouido fintech, Yangjae artificial intelligence (AI), Hongneung bio-medical, and ICT this year. The plan is to accelerate technology commercialization through a hub-centered new industry technology development (R&D) support method, which is considered a core future growth engine. The fintech and blockchain sectors, essential technologies and core competitiveness in the financial industry of the 4th Industrial Revolution era, will receive expanded support of 2 billion KRW compared to the previous year, actively reflecting the demand for non-face-to-face financial services.

Additionally, a total of 3.4 billion KRW will be supported for the creation of the Yangjae AI cluster (2.4 billion KRW) and the fostering of the robot industry in the Suseo area (1 billion KRW). Twenty billion KRW will be invested in innovative projects that combine the latest IT technologies with the fashion and beauty industries to enable actual commercialization, and 800 million KRW will be allocated to the development of convergent media content to strengthen the global competitiveness of K-content, which is gaining worldwide attention. Furthermore, 4.7 billion KRW will be provided to support commercialization for promising companies with excellent bio-medical technologies based in Seoul, and 1 billion KRW will be invested in supporting cross-industry convergent technology commercialization in G-Valley, the first national industrial complex and a cluster of various companies and industries including IT, software, and manufacturing.

Moreover, Seoul City will operate the Seoul-type TIPS (Tech Incubator Program for Startups) system from this year, shifting from the previous method of supporting companies through budget competitions to a matching investment method where the city makes additional investments when private investors invest in companies with growth potential and market-leading competitiveness. Twenty-three billion KRW of the technology development (R&D) budget will be invested in the Seoul-type TIPS system, which recommends promising companies. Selected companies will receive not only budget support from private investors and Seoul City but also multifaceted support for commercialization such as expert mentoring, investment funds, and market development.

Furthermore, the Seoul Innovation Challenge, an open technology development (R&D) project, will expand from being held once a year to five times a year to increase the productization and commercialization potential of innovative technology ideas. Twenty teams with outstanding final results will be selected and supported with a total of 2.4 billion KRW. Especially from this year, large corporations will present desired innovative technologies as tasks, and after matching with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), venture companies, and startups possessing the relevant technologies and ideas, the process will be linked to technology verification and investment attraction to quickly lead to technology commercialization.

To ensure market settlement, ‘demonstration support,’ which is limited for SMEs and startups on their own, will also be expanded. To achieve sufficient technology verification, which is essential for technology to settle in the market, the city will strengthen ‘testbed’ support by opening infrastructure across Seoul to companies, and will enhance customized follow-up support such as public procurement, intellectual property protection, and investment attraction after demonstration support.

Meanwhile, the technology commercialization support project selects SMEs that possess technology development prototypes and supports overall R&D funds for marketability verification and market expansion in a short period by linking with domestic and international crowdfunding platforms. This year, expert consulting and post-management support such as promotion and distribution for market settlement will be strengthened for participating companies. A total budget of 5 billion KRW will be invested to support technology commercialization of Seoul-based SMEs.

Hwang Bo-yeon, Director of the Economic Policy Office, said, “Enhancing the technological competitiveness of our companies to advance globally is the way to strengthen urban competitiveness.” He added, “To secure future-leading industries in the era of the 4th Industrial Revolution, we will actively support R&D in new growth industries such as fintech and bio-medical so that companies with competitive technologies can thrive in domestic and international markets.”

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