Busan City Selects 63 Representative Startup Companies in Busan This Year ... Discovering Future Unicorn Companies

Support by Growth Stage and Promotion of Innovative Growth

Certificate Award Ceremony at 2 PM on the 12th

On the 12th at 2 p.m., Busan City held the ‘2023 Busan Representative Startup Company Certification Ceremony’ at the Westin Chosun Busan Hotel, presenting certificates to 63 companies.

Busan City held the "2023 Busan Representative Startup Company Certification Ceremony."

During the first part of the event, Jeong Yong-chae, CEO of ‘SlashBslash,’ which was selected as a ‘Baby Unicorn’ company by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups last year, gave a lecture on ‘Growth of Unicorn Companies,’ followed by a networking session among companies.

In the second part, certificates were presented by representative startup company clubs, and the event concluded with a group commemorative photo.

The ‘Busan Representative Startup Company Support Project’ is a program designed to discover and nurture Busan startups that possess innovative technologies and high growth potential.

Every year, through collaboration among three Busan startup support organizations?the Busan Center for Creative Economy & Innovation, Busan Economic Promotion Agency, and Busan Technopark?four clubs are formed to support Busan startups.

▲ The ‘Bright Club’ is led by the Busan Center for Creative Economy & Innovation and supports 20 companies with customized commercialization funds of up to 10 million KRW per company. ▲ The ‘Million Club,’ managed by the Busan Economic Promotion Agency, provides commercialization funds of up to 3 million KRW to 36 companies, and in the second year of certification, plans to support up to 20 million KRW in business advancement funds for three outstanding startups. ▲ The ‘Platinum Club,’ overseen by Busan Technopark, supports four companies with commercialization funds of up to 10 million KRW each and operates capacity-building programs for continuous investment attraction. ▲ The ‘Ace Stella,’ also managed by Busan Technopark, identifies three startups that have verified business feasibility and supports them with commercialization funds of up to 100 million KRW, focusing on nurturing them to continuously grow into ‘Baby Unicorn’ and ‘Pre-Unicorn’ company stages.

Since 2017, Busan City has been promoting the ‘Busan Representative Startup Company Support Project,’ and this year, a total of 759 startups with innovative technologies have been discovered.

Among those selected as the ‘Platinum Club’ in 2019, ▲ Ronpick (CEO Baek Jun-young) was selected for the ‘Ministry of SMEs and Startups Baby Unicorn 200 Development Project’ in the first half of last year. ▲ SP Med (CEO Shin Jae-guk), selected for the Bright Club in 2018 and the Platinum Club in 2020, and ▲ SlashBslash (CEO Jeong Yong-chae), selected for the Platinum Club in 2021 and Ace Stella in 2023, achieved the distinction of being selected for the ‘Ministry of SMEs and Startups Baby Unicorn 200 Development Project’ in the second half of last year.

Lee Sung-kwon, Deputy Mayor for Economic Affairs, stated, “We hope that promising startups certified as Busan Representative Startup Companies will grow into future ‘Unicorn Companies.’ The three startup support organizations in Busan will pool their capabilities and provide multifaceted support to lead the innovative growth of Busan startups.”

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