Seoul City Announces Recruitment for Resident Companies at K-Youth Startup Hub 'Seoul Social Venture Hub'

Selected 5 Social Ventures, Providing Close Support

[Asia Economy Reporter Kiho Sung] The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced on the 30th that it will recruit five new tenant companies for the ‘Seoul Social Venture Hub,’ which will write a new history of K-Youth Startups in 2023, until the 26th of next month. Among the 15 companies currently residing, five have completed two years of tenancy, leading to the selection of new companies.

The ‘Seoul Social Venture Hub’ is a social venture incubation institution opened by the Seoul Metropolitan Government in October 2019 to simultaneously achieve three goals: ‘solving social issues’ such as environment and care, ‘expanding sustainable profits for companies,’ and ‘creating youth jobs.’

Despite the economic downturn caused by COVID-19 and the global economic recession, the 15 tenant companies of the K-Youth Startup Mecca ‘Seoul Social Venture Hub’ achieved remarkable results last year with sales of 13 billion KRW, 190 new jobs, and 5 billion KRW in investment attraction. Intellectual property applications and registrations also reached 44 cases.

The five newly selected social ventures will receive free individual office spaces within the ‘Seoul Social Venture Hub’ for up to two years. This is highly regarded as a great help for novice entrepreneurs who find it difficult to invest in fixed costs during the early stages of startup.

The office spaces vary from two-person rooms (9.6㎡) to ten-person rooms (33.82㎡), equipped with basic office equipment such as desks, chairs, and drawers. The management fee ranges from 140,000 KRW to 630,000 KRW per month. In addition to office spaces, shared meeting rooms, seminar rooms, and rest areas are also available free of charge.

Social venture specialized startup planners (accelerators) provide close step-by-step support tailored to the characteristics of each company. They systematically manage continuous growth and value enhancement as social ventures through funding attraction via investment linkage, market support, investor relations (IR) presentations, and professional tax and legal consulting. Furthermore, dedicated mentors are assigned to each tenant company to support securing social venture self-sustainability, including mid- to long-term business plan reviews, open innovation and pilot project development fund (PoC) linkage, prototype production, and product improvement.

Companies wishing to move into the ‘Seoul Social Venture Hub’ can apply online through the website until the 26th of next month. Eligible applicants are social venture corporations located in Seoul within seven years (84 months) of establishment as of the announcement date, possessing innovative technologies and business models in research and development (R&D) fields related to companionship with the vulnerable (livelihood, medical care, housing, education, safety, etc.) or solving important social issues in Seoul (environment, living environment, climate, renewable energy, etc.).

The final selected companies will be announced on March 24 on the Seoul Metropolitan Government and Seoul Social Venture Hub websites. Tenancy is for one year from April to March next year, with the possibility of a one-year extension based on evaluation before the expiration of the period.

Jae-yong Park, Director of Labor, Fairness, and Coexistence Policy at Seoul City, said, “Social ventures are an alternative for youth startups that can literally catch three rabbits: solving social problems, creating jobs, and pursuing sustainable profits. We will continue to provide close support so that tenant companies can grow into true social ventures that accompany the vulnerable and create business models that help solve Seoul’s social problems.”

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