Incheon City Accelerates Bio Startup Development Ahead of Establishing 'K-Bio Lab Hub'

Operating 'Startup Accelerating Program' with Incheon TP
Applications open until the 15th of next month... 15 million KRW support per company

K-Bio Lab Hub Bird's-eye View [Provided by Incheon City]

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Hyesook] Incheon City is set to actively foster bio ventures and startups ahead of promoting the 'K-Bio Lab Hub Construction Project.'

The city announced on the 27th that, together with Incheon Technopark, it will operate a startup accelerating program as part of the '2022 Bio Cluster Creation Support Project.'

This program, aimed at establishing a foundation for bio research and development and startup support systems, selects promising startups in the bio sector through private accelerators (startup planners) and supports technology startup programs such as consulting, mentoring, education, and investment linkage.

The total project budget is 200 million KRW, supporting five promising startups with approximately 15 million KRW per company. The target includes excellent prospective entrepreneurs and early-stage startups in the bio, pharmaceutical, and medical device fields that have been established for seven years or less.

Incheon Technopark will select 10 companies in the first phase through a public contest by the 15th of next month, conduct preliminary diagnostics, and then select five companies in the second phase. It will comprehensively support customized accelerating programs including company diagnosis and business model (BM) establishment, mentoring, intellectual property (IP) advancement, promotion and marketing, investor relations (IR) capability enhancement programs, and investment attraction support.

Additionally, it will operate a bio startup council and networking programs such as seminars, and continue to provide follow-up management including connections with investment institutions.

An official from Incheon City stated, "We expect that the entry barriers for bio startup companies, which require high-risk, long-term, and large-scale investments, will be lowered through step-by-step advanced startup support," adding, "We will build a continuous and stable startup ecosystem to foster bio ventures and startups, which are currently lacking in Incheon."

Meanwhile, the 'K-Bio Lab Hub,' which Incheon City attracted to Yonsei University's Songdo International Campus, will be equipped with a comprehensive support system in one space for bio startup company residency, facilities and equipment necessary for experimentation, research, clinical trials, and prototype production, as well as industry-academia-research-hospital collaboration. It is benchmarked after 'LabCentral,' a bio startup support institution in Boston, USA, famous for producing the global pharmaceutical company 'Moderna.'

The K-Bio Lab Hub was selected as a preliminary feasibility study project by the Ministry of Economy and Finance in January. After about seven months of preliminary feasibility review, once the project promotion is decided, it will proceed through budget allocation and other procedures, start construction next year, and plan to operate in full scale from 2026.

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