Ministry of SMEs and Startups Holds Awards Ceremony for 'Women Startup Competition and Korea Women Entrepreneurs Awards'

[Asia Economy Reporter Donghyun Choi] The Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced on the 8th that it held the ‘2022 Women Startup Competition’ and the ‘Korea Women Entrepreneurs Awards Ceremony’ at TIPS Town S1 (TIPS Hall) in Yeoksam-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul.

Held annually since 2000, the ‘Women Startup Competition’ is the only domestic competition targeting women entrepreneurs (including prospective entrepreneurs) with excellent ideas and business items, aimed at discovering outstanding women startup companies and promoting women’s technology startups. This year marks its 23rd anniversary.

A total of 1,233 teams participated in this competition (with a competition rate of 35 to 1), and in line with the purpose of the competition, 79.1% of the participants were women entrepreneurs in technology startup fields such as ICT and bio-health. Technical and investment experts conducted document and presentation evaluations to select a total of 34 teams as finalists.

The prestigious Grand Prize (Minister of SMEs and Startups Award and prize money of 10 million KRW) was awarded to CEO Hyejun Lee of KaiHealth, who developed an artificial intelligence application that selects embryos with a high probability of pregnancy.

Two people, including CEO Soo Kim of Brexogen, who developed an ‘exosome therapeutic using BG-platform technology,’ received the Excellence Award, and three people, including CEO Seohyun Kwon of Moonis, who developed the ‘ultra-personalized AI sleep wave solution SleepGround,’ received the Merit Award.

The winners of this competition will receive rewards as well as support for investment attraction and acceleration program linkage. The top 30 teams among the winners will also be granted various benefits such as entry to the integrated finals of Challenge K-Startup scheduled for October this year and expert coaching.

Additionally, to encourage women startup companies in technology-based fields, the ‘Korea Women Entrepreneurs Award’ was newly established this year and awarded to six women startup companies at this ceremony. Six companies, including Kurly, Korea’s first female unicorn, and InnoTherapy, which developed biomimetic new materials and succeeded in commercialization for the first time, were selected as recipients of the ‘Korea Women Entrepreneurs Award.’

Cho Joohyun, Vice Minister of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, said, “The Women Startup Competition and the Korea Women Entrepreneurs Awards Ceremony aim to foster and encourage women technology-based startups so that women enterprises can strengthen their foundations,” adding, “We will actively support women enterprises not only to discover excellent women startup companies but also to grow into the second and third unicorns.”

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