Seoul City Teams Up with FSC and KOTRA to Launch Local Investment Attraction Campaign in Silicon Valley

Poem, Local Investment Briefing in Silicon Valley, USA After 3 Years... FSC and KOTRA Silicon Valley Trade Center Jointly Host
Four Fintech Companies Debut Locally Attracting Silicon Valley Investors... Introducing Technology and Services to 50 Investors

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] Seoul announced on the 18th that it will begin full-scale investment attraction starting with Silicon Valley in the United States. The Seoul Finance and Investment Attraction Conference (Financial Hub IR) is the first local investment attraction briefing held overseas in three years since COVID-19, aiming to showcase the strengths of "Seoul as a competitive financial hub" and to debut four promising domestic fintech companies in front of local investors.

The event, held in Silicon Valley, USA, from the 20th, is organized in collaboration with the Financial Supervisory Service (Financial Hub Support Center) and KOTRA Silicon Valley Trade Center to enhance the potential for attracting overseas investment.

The conference is divided into two parts. In Part 1, Invest Seoul and the Financial Supervisory Service will each conduct sales activities to attract investment in Seoul's finance and investment sectors. The Financial Supervisory Service will promote the current status of Korea's finance and fintech industries, strengths in the digital sector, and support policies such as regulatory easing. In particular, it will introduce the "Financial Regulatory Sandbox" system, implemented since 2019, which temporarily exempts or defers financial regulations, and explain support systems for entering the domestic market.

Invest Seoul will provide information on Seoul's financial environment and policies as an Asian financial hub, and introduce various policies supported by the Seoul Metropolitan Government. It will also promote various support policies such as cash support and employment subsidies available to foreign-invested companies entering Seoul, as well as office space provision at the International Finance Office located in Yeouido IFC Mall.

Part 2 features a pitching session where four fintech companies, which are of interest to local Silicon Valley investors, introduce their technologies and services to investors. The four participating companies have developed investment attraction strategies tailored to the interests of attending investors and have undergone pre-coaching and consulting with professional investors to highlight their competitiveness during the pitching preparation process.

Thirty investors (19 venture capital firms, 6 financial institutions, and 5 related organizations) have applied to participate on-site, and about 20 investors will attend online simultaneously. Additionally, company information has been promoted in advance to interested Silicon Valley investors to ensure that genuinely interested investors attend the event for an in-depth investment attraction briefing.

Furthermore, a customized matching event will be held for investors who wish to have additional investment consultations with participating companies on-site. Since one-on-one meetings between companies and investors on-site play a crucial role in investment decisions, follow-up investment consultation support will continue until the 21st.

Seoul plans to actively carry out overseas investment attraction activities in the second half of the year, starting with this Silicon Valley finance conference. On the 20th, Invest Seoul will host an investment briefing at the Seoul IFC International Finance Office, inviting two Saudi sovereign wealth funds. An MOU will be signed between Invest Seoul and the Seoul Metropolitan Government to promote overseas investment attraction and startup ecosystem activation, and IR/matching events will be held targeting Seoul unicorn companies and startups based in the Middle East.

In October, Seoul will participate in GITEX, the largest information and communication technology exhibition in the Middle East, operating a Seoul Pavilion and introducing 10 Seoul companies to local investors. In November, Seoul will attend the Singapore FinTech Festival (SFF), the world's largest fintech exhibition and conference, setting up and operating a Seoul Pavilion and supporting overseas investment attraction for 11 Seoul companies.

Hwang Bo-yeon, Director of Seoul's Economic Policy Office, said, "We will resume overseas investment attraction activities that were halted due to the spread of COVID-19, actively meeting investors and companies to promote Seoul." He added, "Centered on Invest Seoul, the dedicated investment attraction organization, we will attract leading overseas companies and investment capital to Seoul and engage in comprehensive activities to help our companies expand overseas."

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