This Year's Best K-Startup... Total Prize Money of 1.5 Billion Won

'Challenge! K-Startup 2024' Integrated Finals Kick Off
Final 20 Teams Selected in December Championship

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced that it will hold the opening ceremony of the integrated finals of "Challenge! K-Startup 2024" at Seoul Startup Hub in Mapo-gu, Seoul on the 14th.

Minister Oh Young-joo of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups is speaking at the 'Startup Korea Fund Launch Ceremony' held at Hotel Naru Seoul M Gallery on April 24. [Photo by Ministry of SMEs and Startups]

As a result of recruiting (preliminary) entrepreneurs by preliminary league through an integrated announcement on January 29 by 10 ministries including the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, a total of 6,238 teams applied. Among them, 210 teams advanced to the integrated finals stage by overcoming an average competition rate of 30 to 1. The Ministry of SMEs and Startups plans to select the final 20 teams through the integrated finals and the champions' round.

"Challenge! K-Startup" started in 2016 as a collaboration of four ministries and is now the largest startup competition in Korea, involving 10 ministries including the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Environment, Ministry of National Defense, Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, and Ministry of Science and ICT.

“Unicorn,” which won the grand prize last year, developed ultra-high-speed and ultra-compact semiconductor connectivity that replaces connectors and cables, conducted proof of concept (PoC) with global companies such as Qualcomm and Rosenberger, and succeeded in attracting investment exceeding 14 billion KRW.

“NationA,” which received the excellence award, is a generative AI-based 3D and 4D content creation software that attracted more than 2 billion KRW in investment and won two innovation awards at CES 2024.

The 210 teams advancing to this integrated finals will be narrowed down to 30 teams for the champions' round through a four-day evaluation starting on the 29th. Then, in the December champions' round, the final 20 teams will be selected and awarded 20 certificates including the Presidential Award and prize money totaling 1.5 billion KRW.

Kim Seong-seop, Vice Minister of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, said, “We felt the spread of the domestic startup atmosphere among foreigners, as the number of foreign student applicants more than doubled compared to last year. We will also support these startups to grow into global startups together with related ministries.”

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