Kyowon Group, Final Selection of 2nd Internal Startup Cohort

The in-house startup team that won the final victory in the 2nd term of Kyowon Group's 'Deep Change Idea Prize' is taking a commemorative photo.

[Asia Economy Reporter Donghyun Choi] Kyowon Group announced on the 6th that it has finalized the selection of the second batch of its in-house startup discovery program, ‘Deep Change Idea Prize,’ and will begin supporting the startups.

In April, Kyowon Group invited its employees to submit business ideas related to new businesses, products, and services, receiving applications from a total of 22 teams. After an internal review, 8 teams were selected and given two months of build-up time to concretize their business plans and ideas.

Kyowon Group held a final in-house startup company presentation (IR) and selected two teams that presented ideas on a ‘Smart Funeral Preparation Service’ and an ‘Adult Foreign Language Learning Platform.’ The winning team received a prize of 5 million KRW and initial investment for commercialization. The runner-up team was awarded 3 million KRW.

The winning team’s proposed ‘Smart Funeral Preparation Service’ idea is a specialized funeral platform business that covers everything from funeral preparation to usage and memorial services. It offers a service that allows users to prepare funerals at reasonable prices through a systematic process including funeral information, intuitive funeral hall searches, and price comparisons. Notably, the team members work at Kyowon Life, which operates the group’s funeral services business, and have directly listened to and communicated with bereaved families about their inconveniences and difficulties. The service was planned to introduce a bereaved-family-centered advanced funeral culture, with commercialization targeted for launch in March next year.

Kyowon Group will provide multifaceted support to ensure there are no difficulties in the actual commercialization efforts of the final winning in-house startup team. The in-house startup team will be guaranteed autonomous work for one year, focusing solely on actual commercialization such as developing and verifying the idea’s MVP in an independent office space. Additionally, up to 300 million KRW in business support funds will be provided, along with consulting for business preparation including technology, networks, and business model construction owned by the company.

After full-scale commercialization, depending on the in-house startup team’s decision, the business can be conducted within the company or spun off as an independent corporation. Even if the startup fails, the company guarantees reemployment. Employees are encouraged to boldly challenge their goals without being held accountable for failure, and new attempts are actively supported.

A Kyowon Group official said, “The Deep Change Idea Prize is highly popular among young employees in their 3rd to 4th year of employment because it offers an opportunity to realize ideas as if actually starting a business. We hope that the ideas of the in-house startup teams selected in this second batch will lead to successful business outcomes, and we will continue to enhance an open organizational culture that challenges future businesses together with our employees.”

Meanwhile, Kyowon Group’s first in-house startup, TOCK, selected last year, has successfully launched and operated a web novel platform for Generation Z. The platform, also named ‘TOCK,’ features ‘multimedia web novels’ by combining interactive (motion recognition video media) based immersive content.

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