41 New 'Agiyunicorn' Born

Additional Selection of Support Targets for Agi Unicorn 200 Development Project

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Cheol-hyun] The Ministry of SMEs and Startups (Minister Lee Young) announced on the 30th that it has additionally selected 41 companies as targets for the 'Baby Unicorn 200 Development Project' to continuously create a foundation for the birth of unicorn companies and support promising startups to grow into pre-unicorns with a corporate value of over 100 billion KRW.

The support targets for the Baby Unicorn 200 Development Project are companies that possess competitive products or services nearing the completion of research and development and are expected to grow in the future. The selection of support targets involved a professional judging panel and a public judging panel selected through a 5 to 1 competition ratio.

The 100 companies selected and supported until last year have seen their average employment approximately double after selection, and their sales have also increased 2.5 times. Additionally, 60 out of the 100 companies attracted a total investment of 676.7 billion KRW. Reflecting the rapid growth of Baby Unicorns, the competition rate in the public offering for the second half of this year rose to an all-time high of 8.4 to 1, establishing it as a representative startup development program.

The 41 newly selected companies have an average business duration of 4.2 years and average sales of 3.03 billion KRW. By industry, they consist of 18 companies in ICT-based platforms and 15 companies in the biohealth sector. All selected companies received a grade of A or higher in the technology business evaluation by the Korea Technology Finance Corporation, with 11 companies confirmed to have received the highest grade, AAA.

Among them, 'RCI' is an online platform company that directly connects heavy equipment demanders and suppliers, targeting the Vietnamese used heavy equipment market growing at 7% annually, achieving annual sales of 4.5 billion KRW within two years of entering Vietnam. 'Curaum' is a medical device manufacturer for sleep apnea treatment founded by a medical doctor. Through an oral insertion device, it measures patient data and transmits it via mobile to the patient's medical staff, helping the medical staff provide optimal treatment plans for the patient. 'Foen' started as an in-house venture of Hyundai Motor Company and is a remanufacturing company for electric vehicle used batteries, remanufacturing, reusing, and evaluating residual value of batteries after electric vehicle use. They are expanding their business model by applying AI algorithms for residual battery value evaluation obtained during the remanufacturing process to insurance, used car sales, and more.

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups supports a total of 12 follow-up linked projects to help selected companies overcome the high risk of failure in the early stages of startup and sustain growth. Minister Lee Young stated, "Starting next year, we plan to intensively reinforce global expansion support programs so that Baby Unicorn companies can compete with world-leading companies in overseas markets, beyond the narrow domestic market where they currently compete with small business owners."

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