Saneun-Busan City, Establishing 'Busan Innovation Startup Town' for Regional Venture Development

Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK) announced on the 1st that it will jointly promote the 'Busan Innovation Startup Town' project with Busan City. The initiative aims to support startup creation and growth in the Busan area and to alleviate the concentration of the venture startup ecosystem in the Seoul metropolitan area.

As the largest direct and indirect venture investment financial institution in Korea and the sole integrated venture platform operator?managing NextRound (investment attraction support), NextRise (exhibition booths and meetup arrangements), and NextOne (startup incubation)?IBK plans to expand its capabilities and functions to Busan and play a leading role in creating startup spaces. Busan City will also oversee securing and developing the startup spaces.

KDB Industrial Bank stock photo / Photo by Moon Ho-nam munonam@

The Busan Innovation Startup Town aims to be a large-scale complex startup space that provides not only residency for Busan-based startups and foreign venture entrepreneurs but also comprehensive support including systematic incubation, management consulting, and financial assistance. It will be established as a privately led open startup incubation center, where a private professional operator will manage the town, and incubation partners (financial institutions, accelerators, VCs, etc.) will collaborate.

The spatial composition and operation of the Busan Innovation Startup Town will benchmark the Mapo Front1 model, currently the world's largest and successfully operated venture incubation space, while harmonizing with Busan's regional characteristics.

To expedite the Busan Innovation Startup Town project, IBK and Busan City plan to expand participation in the task force (TF) launching early this month to include not only both institutions and the Bank권 Youth Startup Foundation (D.CAMP) but also BNK Financial Group, Korea Securities Depository, and other local venture-related organizations. Furthermore, after establishing detailed plans by the end of this year, they aim to complete site selection and remodeling to open the town in the second half of next year.

Chairman Kang Seok-hoon stated, "The creation of the Busan Innovation Startup Town is the first step toward expanding Busan City's venture startup foundation as the second financial hub and achieving balanced development of the venture ecosystem outside the Seoul metropolitan area. IBK will participate as a key partner in this project and make every effort to use its success as a stepping stone to expand into regions such as Chungcheong and Honam."

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