Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Announces Recruitment for Real Estate Service Industry Startup Competition Participants

Prize Money of 35 Million KRW Awarded to 7 Finalist Teams

[Asia Economy Reporter Wan-yong Cha] The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced on the 24th that it will hold the 'Real Estate Service Industry Startup Competition' to discover and support promising startups with excellent ideas in the real estate service industry sector and is recruiting participants.

The Real Estate Service Industry Startup Competition has been hosted by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and organized by the Korea Real Estate Board annually since 2018, marking its sixth edition this year.

The final winning teams (7 teams) will receive seven awards including the Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Award and the Korea Real Estate Board President Award, with a total prize money of 35 million KRW, including 10 million KRW for the grand prize. All winning teams will be granted eligibility to participate in the cross-ministerial startup competition. The seven teams finally selected will have opportunities to participate in the Ministry of the Interior and Safety competition (2 teams) and the Ministry of SMEs and Startups competition (5 teams), along with investment attraction opportunities.

Until last year, six teams won awards by participating in the cross-ministerial competition, and last year, for the first time, they participated in the cross-ministerial startup competition 'Challenge K-Startup' hosted by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, winning the Excellence Award (prize money of 70 million KRW), achieving good results. Challenge K-Startup is the largest domestic competition, with a total of 5,420 teams from 11 government ministries passing the preliminary round, 210 teams participating in the finals, and among them, 20 final teams receiving awards including the Presidential Award and total prize money of 1.5 billion KRW.

The winning teams will be supported to stabilize their business in the early stages by being able to use the office space and work facilities of the 'PropTech Village' set up at the Korea Real Estate Board's Seoul Gangnam headquarters free of charge for one year. Teams that pass the document screening before the final selection (7 teams) (18 teams) will be given the opportunity to participate in a startup camp.

Applications for the competition will be accepted via email from the 27th to May 8th, targeting prospective entrepreneurs or startups within seven years of establishment. After document screening and the startup camp, the final winning teams will be decided at the end of July.

Nam Young-woo, Director of Land Policy at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, said, "As various technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and metaverse are being utilized across industries recently, we hope that the startup competition will serve as a foundation for the real estate service industry to incorporate these technologies into the industry and lead to startups." He added, "We look forward to the active participation of many prospective entrepreneurs with creative and innovative ideas."

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