Pohang City Designated as First Basic Local Government 'Tipstown' ... Leading Innovative Startup Ecosystem

Pohang City is accelerating the creation of a region-led innovative startup ecosystem based on being the first basic local government to be designated as a ‘TIPS-Town’.

Pohang City was designated as the first basic local government to become a 'Tipstown' and held an opening ceremony on the 22nd, visiting major startups within Changeup Ground. (From the fourth person on the left: Nam-il Kim, Vice Mayor of Pohang City; Dal-hee Lee, Deputy Governor for Economy of Gyeongbuk Province; Joo-hyun Cho, Vice Minister of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups; Yong-su Kim, Head of Purchasing and Investment Division at POSCO; Byung-wook Kim, Member of the National Assembly; Byung-chul Ko, CEO of POSTECH Holdings)

Pohang City held an opening ceremony on the 22nd to mark the official launch of ‘Pohang Change-up Ground,’ the region’s representative startup incubation space, as the largest startup hub outside the metropolitan area, following its final designation as a ‘Public-Private Partnership TIPS-Town’ by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups (hereinafter referred to as the Ministry).

The opening ceremony was attended by more than 150 people, including Cho Ju-hyun, Vice Minister of the Ministry; Kim Nam-il, Vice Mayor of Pohang City; Lee Dal-hee, Deputy Governor for Economy of Gyeongbuk Province; Congressman Kim Byung-wook; Kim Yong-moon, President of the Korea Institute of Startup & Entrepreneurship Development; Won Young-jun, Director of the Daegu-Gyeongbuk Regional Office of SMEs and Startups; Kim Yong-soo, Head of POSCO Purchasing and Investment Headquarters; Ko Byung-chul, CEO of POSTECH Holdings; as well as representatives and executives of ventures and startups.

The event began with a briefing on the future operation plans of TIPS-Town, followed by visits to key startups within Change-up Ground such as Graphene Square, BioBricks, and Eomtech to confirm their innovative technological capabilities and future visions.

Additionally, separate side events were held for resident companies, including investment attraction consultations such as TIPS Salon and Change-up Day, sharing know-how on TIPS selection, and IR pitching (corporate investment promotion), providing a broad networking platform among related ventures and startups.

‘TIPS-Town,’ designated by the Ministry, is a government-led ‘startup incubation hub’ where incubation institutions, investors, and companies selected under ‘TIPS (Tech Incubating Program for Startup),’ which discovers and nurtures leading domestic startups, are concentrated. Currently, seven locations are operating in Seoul, Daejeon, and other areas. The designation benefits include government budget and private investment-linked R&D support, as well as full-cycle growth support from ‘selection-admission-incubation-investment,’ leading the activation and advancement of the ‘Korean-style’ startup ecosystem.

TIPS (Tech Incubating Program for Startup) is a ‘private investment-led technology startup support’ program operated by the Ministry to foster promising future startup companies.

In particular, Pohang Change-up Ground, newly designated as the first ‘public-private partnership TIPS-Town’ outside the metropolitan area, is attracting attention as a leading startup hub that will expand startup and investment activities, previously concentrated in the metropolitan area, to local regions and realize innovative and successful startups outside the metropolitan area.

It is also expected to create synergy effects by linking with excellent local industry-academia-research infrastructures such as POSTECH and the Small Giant R&D Special Zone, as well as existing resident companies that have proven global competitiveness, including winning the CES Best Innovation Award in the U.S.

Vice Minister Cho Ju-hyun of the Ministry said, “Discovering and nurturing promising startups is a key task to secure growth engines for the upcoming era of innovative technology,” and added, “We will spare no government support so that Pohang Change-up Ground can grow beyond the first public-private partnership TIPS-Town in the provinces to become a ‘global startup hub’ leading the K-startup ecosystem.”

Vice Mayor Kim Nam-il said, “Amid growing attention to the growth of local startups both domestically and internationally, the designation of ‘TIPS-Town’ will serve as a catalyst for creating a sustainable and high-quality startup ecosystem as well as regional balanced development,” and added, “We will establish a successful model of a public-private partnership startup hub based on TIPS’ strategic support projects and excellent R&D linkage and cooperation.”

Since its opening in July 2021, ‘Pohang Change-up Ground’ has achieved a 100% occupancy rate, housing 112 promising ventures and startups with a total corporate value exceeding 1.5 trillion KRW. It contributes to creating a world-class startup ecosystem based on a close industry-academia-research cooperation system involving basic science and practical research, startup incubation and nurturing, and product and technology commercialization.

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