The 'Baby Unicorn' Selected by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups Has Grown Rapidly
26 Companies Exceed 100 Billion KRW in Corporate Value
[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Cheol-hyun] The Ministry of SMEs and Startups (Minister Lee Young) announced on the 12th that, as a result of analyzing the performance of companies that participated in the Baby Unicorn 200 nurturing project, 26 companies succeeded in achieving a corporate value of 100 billion won through follow-up investments after participation.
The Baby Unicorn 200 nurturing project is a program that discovers promising startups with innovative business models and proven growth potential, and nurtures them into prospective unicorn companies (corporate value over 100 billion won) with global competitiveness.
Through an evaluation process involving a national judging panel, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups has been focusing on nurturing Baby Unicorn companies to grow into global unicorns by providing 12 types of support, including market development funds. In the second half of last year, 334 companies applied for 40 spots, recording a competition rate of 8.4 to 1, demonstrating high interest from startups.
The cumulative investment amount for 116 companies that completed follow-up investments after the selection agreement is approximately 1.9714 trillion won. The corporate value increased on average 3.5 times compared to 563.4 billion won at the time of application. There are also excellent cases where the corporate value surpassed 100 billion won and simultaneously grew more than tenfold after being selected as a Baby Unicorn. For example, Monolabs, an AI-recommended personalized health functional food subscription service company, saw its corporate value grow tenfold within eight months after being selected in April last year.
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The Ministry of SMEs and Startups plans to recruit an additional 50 companies through the Baby Unicorn 200 recruitment announcement in early March this year, with significantly enhanced global expansion incentives. Minister Lee Young said, "It is necessary for Baby Unicorn companies to go beyond settling in the narrow domestic market and compete with leading global companies in overseas markets," adding, "We plan to strengthen new entry support programs so that promising startups, which show rapid growth with verified technology in Korea, can also achieve explosive growth in the global market."
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