"Up to 300 Million KRW Business Funding Support"... Recruiting Participants for 'Agiyunicorn200 Project'

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bo-kyung] The Ministry of SMEs and Startups will additionally recruit participating companies for the second half of this year’s 'Baby Unicorn 200 Development Project' starting from the 18th.

The Baby Unicorn 200 Development Project is a government initiative designed to help promising startups and venture companies that have passed market validation grow into prospective unicorn companies with a corporate value of over 100 billion KRW.

The final selection will be made by combining evaluations from a professional evaluation panel and a public jury, mainly assessing △innovation of the business model △growth potential △global market expansion capability.

Selected companies will receive new market pioneer funds (up to 300 million KRW), special guarantees (up to 5 billion KRW), policy funds (up to 10 billion KRW), and preferential treatment for participation in the Ministry of SMEs and Startups’ technology development projects.

Starting this year, linked projects such as overseas expansion support, regulatory sandbox support, broadcast advertising support, youth employment incentives, and ESG (environmental, social, and governance) management introduction support will be added.

In the first half of this year, the Baby Unicorn 200 Development Project received 284 applications for 60 selected companies, recording a competition rate of 4.73 to 1.

The sales of the 100 companies selected until last year increased by 584.4 billion KRW, growing approximately 2.8 times (177%) per company. They newly hired 1,920 employees, increasing about 1.5 times (55.6%) based on employment insurance subscribers. Among the 100 companies, 60 raised an additional 676.7 billion KRW from venture capital and others after selection.

Meanwhile, a national recommendation system for prospective unicorn companies will be operated. Anyone in the public can recommend prospective unicorn companies with innovation and growth potential through the Ministry of SMEs and Startups’ website and other channels.

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