Ministry of SMEs and Startups Announces Recruitment for 'Startup Incubating Competition' Participants

Nationwide Startup Infrastructure Collaboration
Discovering and Nurturing Promising Entrepreneurs

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced on the 12th that it is recruiting participants for the 'Startup Incubating Competition,' which integrates the startup competitions previously held separately for each startup infrastructure project.

This competition is a 'nurturing and growth-type competition' that selects 96 startup teams with high growth potential from over 600 users of startup infrastructure nationwide and nurtures them for three months to enhance their startup items and business models. The focus is on providing opportunities for entrepreneurs to improve their capabilities rather than simple competition.

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Applications and nurturing are conducted by dividing into the item division and commercialization division. The item division recruits holders of innovative manufacturing product ideas online and supports prototype production for item implementation at makerspaces. The commercialization division receives recommendations of excellent resident companies that have grown through startup infrastructure from each center, and selected companies receive intensive consulting at the One-person Creative Company and Middle-aged Bridge Centers.

The final winners will be selected in November, and winners will receive the Minister of SMEs and Startups Award along with a prize of up to 5 million KRW. Additionally, winners will be provided with follow-up support after the competition, such as priority residency and program participation at startup infrastructures nationwide, and support for linking to mass production through the Korea Industrial Complex Corporation, encouraging the continuous growth of entrepreneurs.

Jo Kyung-won, Director of Startup Policy at the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, said, “This competition, held as an integrated event for the first time, is significant in discovering latent startup talents in the regions, supporting the growth of entrepreneurs, and widely spreading excellent startup achievements of regional startup infrastructures,” and added, “We look forward to the active interest and participation of entrepreneurs from each region.”

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