'ComeUp 2022' Closes with Over 57,000 Startup Participants

[Asia Economy Reporter Donghyun Choi] Korea Startup Forum announced on the 14th that 'COMEUP 2022,' the largest domestic startup event held from the 9th to the 11th, has concluded.

COMEUP 2022, which transitioned to a private-led system starting this year, has newly emerged as an event where the startup ecosystem takes center stage. In March, KOSPO was selected as the organizing institution and took charge of the overall planning and operation of the event. A total of 52 ecosystem stakeholders, including startups, investors, global companies, and large corporations, joined as advisory members to compose programs and participants.

Through this, COMEUP 2022 saw the massive participation of over 250 domestic and international startup ecosystem stakeholders from 19 countries, and the total number of visitors over the three days, including on-site attendees and online live streaming viewers, reached approximately 57,000.

At the conference session Future Talk held under the slogan "We Move the World," sharp and in-depth discussions were held on the core issues currently attracting the most attention in the startup ecosystem, receiving favorable reviews.

As the recent startup investment winter continues, sessions on survival methods also drew attention. Various topics such as "Will we have Series B?", "Where is the end of the long winter?", and "What investment strategies do CVCs have this winter?" were discussed, covering realistic perspectives, self-reflection, and potential investment targets to survive despite the challenges.

In addition, discussions on various current issues and the future were conducted, including regulations hindering startup growth, global expansion which has become an essential stage for startup survival, and talent recruitment, which can be considered a core asset of startups.

The COMEUP Stars rookies selected through a record-high competition rate of 12.6 to 1 and the IR pitching competition among 70 teams in the Rocket League were major highlights of COMEUP 2022. Especially this year, the Unicorn League was newly established in COMEUP Stars, with participation from 10 (pre-)unicorn companies including The Pinkfong Company, MyRealTrip, Megazone Cloud, Musinsa, Musicow, Backpacker, IGAWorks, Yanolja, Woowa Brothers, and Deel.

On the last day, the 11th, the first-ever awards ceremony in COMEUP history, named 'COMEUP Stars 2022 Awards,' attracted attention. In the pitching sessions conducted across 10 groups, outstanding companies were selected by group, reflecting evaluations from experts involved in judging and mentoring as well as votes from attendees. The final winners in the Rookie League were ▲DPLHR ▲XL8 ▲Ubislab ▲SqueezeBits ▲StepPay, and in the Rocket League, ▲Airsmidical ▲XYZ ▲SmartMind ▲StoreLink ▲QuotaLab were honored.

Choi Sung-jin, Executive Chairman of COMEUP 2022, said, “We thank the startups and ecosystem stakeholders for their great interest and support shown in the first privately-led COMEUP,” and added, “Based on this year, we will listen to the diverse voices of more startups and continue to develop so that COMEUP can rise to become one of the top five global startup events.”

Meanwhile, COMEUP 2022 will continue meetings between companies that applied for business matching, performance monitoring, and support for selected companies such as COMEUP Stars. The main programs held on-site over the three days can be viewed again at the end of this month through the official COMEUP YouTube channel.

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