Minister Lee Young: "We Will Grow ComeUp into One of the World's Top 5 Startup Festivals in 5 Years"

Lee Young, Minister of SMEs and Startups

[Asia Economy Reporter Donghyun Choi] "We will make COMEUP one of the top 5 global startup events within 5 years."

On the 18th, Lee Young, Minister of SMEs and Startups, stated at the 'COMEUP 2022' press briefing held in Yeoksam-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, "We will transform COMEUP from a government-centered event into a private sector-led festival, making it a much more dynamic event with voluntary participation."

The global startup festival, 'COMEUP 2022,' will be held for three days from next month’s 9th to 11th at Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) in Seoul. This year’s COMEUP will feature innovative startups and investors from more than 15 countries.

COMEUP began in 2019 as an event to showcase Korea’s excellent startup ecosystem to the world and to facilitate exchanges between Korean startups and the global startup ecosystem. Approximately 50,000 people have participated annually.

Starting this year, COMEUP has been rebranded from a government-private cooperative operation to a startup-centered, private-led event, aiming to become one of the world’s top 5 startup events alongside those in the U.S., Finland, Portugal, and France. Programs such as the conference, COMEUP Stars company presentations (IR), booth exhibitions, global companies’ open innovation reverse pitching, and business matching will be conducted with a startup-centered approach.

The slogan for this year’s COMEUP is 'WE MOVE THE WORLD' (Startups Moving the World). It was inspired by the idea of showcasing the startup ecosystem that moves the world through innovation and sharing vivid stories of startups.

At the COMEUP conference, fireside chats and panel discussions will analyze the challenges startups face and their growth strategies from various angles, presenting a vision for the startup ecosystem. A fireside chat is a format where one speaker and one moderator engage in a talk show style conversation, informally discussing questions about entrepreneurship and startup investment rather than in a formal, rigid manner.

Additionally, Minister Lee Young of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups and Park Jae-wook, CEO of Socar, who have directly experienced the startup ecosystem through business management, will review the '2022 Startup Ecosystem.' About 80 domestic and international panelists (speakers), including Lee Jun-pyo, CEO of SoftBank Ventures who leads the trend of startup alliances, and Klaus Wehege, CEO of 10x Innovation Lab, a Silicon Valley startup accelerator, will share vivid stories of startups at home and abroad.

The 'COMEUP Stars' program, which selects innovative startups, received 880 applications for 70 spots, recording the highest competition rate ever at 12.6 to 1. For the 70 selected domestic and international companies, pre-event workshops began last month, followed by pre-event business matching and mentoring. During the main event, they will receive focused support in stages for about three months, including IR pitching and post-event business matching.

This year, COMEUP Stars introduced a Unicorn League, where unicorns and prospective unicorns such as Musinsa and Deel will present their IR pitches. On-site mentoring with unicorns, prospective unicorns, rookies, and rocket league companies will also be conducted concurrently.

At this year’s COMEUP, in addition to global companies simply introducing their programs, a 'reverse pitch' will be introduced where global companies present challenges they want to collaborate on with startups. About 20 domestic and international global companies actively promoting open innovation, including Samsung Electronics C-Lab, Hyundai Motor Company, IBM, Google, and MS, will participate to discover collaboration models with startups. 'Linked programs' with domestic and international startup support organizations and public participation events will also be held.

Furthermore, to expand the domestic startup ecosystem base, overseas startups selected through 'overseas expansion and capacity-building programs' operated by overseas cooperation organizations such as the Italian Trade Agency (ITA) will hold demo days. Networking between these startups and domestic startup ecosystem stakeholders will also take place.

Participation events offering various discount coupons to companies participating in COMEUP such as Woowa Brothers and Socar, as well as the general public (pre-registration, attendee certification, etc.), will be conducted to raise public interest in entrepreneurship.

In addition, COMEUP Stars pre-workshops and networking events linked with Busan City will be promoted to not only expand COMEUP’s base but also contribute to spreading the startup boom within the region.

Minister Lee said, "The Ministry of SMEs and Startups successfully held the Korea-U.S. Startup Summit in New York last month to focus on promoting startups’ global expansion, and we hope to continue that momentum with this COMEUP. We hope COMEUP will serve as an opportunity for innovative startups to interact with startup stakeholders worldwide and expand overseas."

Meanwhile, Minister Lee is expected to announce measures to revitalize ventures and startups by next month.

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