Incheon City to Support 100 Young Entrepreneurs' Overseas Expansion by 2026 with 11.7 Billion KRW Investment

Incheon City will invest 11.7 billion KRW to help 100 young entrepreneurs expand overseas by 2026.

On the 23rd, the city announced that it will officially launch the "Overseas Expansion Base Support Project (Cheongjingi)" targeting 10 young companies this year. To this end, in June, an accelerator to operate the project was selected, and customized step-by-step programs will be provided to 10 companies going forward.

The Cheongjingi project proceeds with three stages of tailored support. First, in stage one, accelerators with extensive experience and networks in overseas expansion support will provide continuous mentoring, consulting, and programs to strengthen investment attraction. Each company's items, technologies, and marketability will be diagnosed, and suitability for the target countries and expansion strategies will be established.

Stage two supports commercialization through prototype production, promotion and marketing, and participation in conferences. Promotion will be conducted using overseas startup specialized media, and participation in international exhibitions attended by startups, investors, and buyers will be supported to raise the companies' recognition. In the final stage three, support will be provided for full-scale overseas expansion, including local market research, discovery and matching of global partners, and establishment of local corporations.

Incheon City Hall Exterior View

To strengthen the overseas expansion capabilities of young companies and achieve rapid investment attraction results, the city selected CNT Tech as the lead accelerator through a public competition. CNT Tech is a startup investment and global nurturing company that has ranked first in investment performance among domestic accelerators for three consecutive years.

This year, young companies will be expanded mainly into Mongolia and Vietnam, which are promoting various policies and programs for startup founders among Southeast Asian countries with relatively low regulations. The plan is to establish introduction results such as local item response surveys, product verification, and sales, and after enhancing product completeness, to aim for entry into the North American and European markets, which have higher purchasing power compared to other regions, next year.

Starting with 10 companies this year, Incheon City plans to discover and expand a total of 100 young (prospective) entrepreneurs overseas by 2026. The supported companies and expansion regions will be gradually increased each year, with a total project budget of 11.7 billion KRW invested in this project.

Meanwhile, the number of young entrepreneurs in the Incheon area increased by 30%, from 27,038 in 2019 to 35,264 in 2021. This far exceeds the national increase rate of young entrepreneurs (440,000 in 2019 → 511,000 in 2021).

However, despite the steady increase in the number of young entrepreneurs due to fierce domestic job competition, the success rate is not high. According to the Statistics Korea's business birth and death administrative statistics (as of 2020), the five-year survival rate for young startups was 27.6%, which is 6.2 percentage points lower than the average for all ages (33.8%). Seven out of ten young entrepreneurs fail to survive five years.

An official from Incheon City stated, "We will expand the city's role as a forward base so that talented young entrepreneurs can challenge overseas expansion, nurture their entrepreneurial dreams, and grow into global young CEOs."

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