Martial Arts, Recruiting Participants for 'Global Startup Step-Up' Program

[Asia Economy Reporter Jin-ho Kim] The Korea International Trade Association announced on the 16th that it is recruiting startups to participate in the '2022 Global Startup Step-up' program.

Started in 2019 under the name 'Global Startup School,' this program discovers and nurtures domestic startups aiming for overseas expansion, providing support linked to open innovation and investment attraction. From this year, the program has been renamed 'Global Startup Step-up.'

The target fields for recruitment include food, information and communication technology (ICT) services and manufacturing, software, content and metaverse, blockchain, bio and healthcare, among others. Companies wishing to participate in the program can refer to the notice on the InnovBranch website and apply by the 3rd of next month.

In the first phase, 24 startups will be selected to receive basic training for three weeks on startup overseas expansion strategies and effective investor relations (IR) methods. Subsequently, about 10 startups selected in the final round will be provided with business diagnosis, investment attraction capability enhancement, mentoring, as well as IR opportunities targeting accelerators (AC) and venture capitals (VC).

Notably, CJ CheilJedang is participating as a sponsor in this program and plans to actively consider investments in food-related technology startups. Startups participating in the program can also receive additional points when applying for the association’s open innovation and proof of concept (PoC) project support.

Jang Seok-min, head of the Digital Innovation Division at the Trade Association, stated, “We will spare no effort to support promising startups discovered through the program by fully utilizing the association’s internal and external resources throughout their lifecycle and growth process.”

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