Ministry of SMEs and Startups Selects 60 Promising Companies for Global Expansion in K-Beauty and Food Sectors

Support for selected companies with private infrastructure such as marketing, education, and consulting
Connected support for next year's export support projects by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups

Promising small and venture companies in the K-beauty and food sectors aiming for global expansion have been selected through public-private collaboration.

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced on the 13th that it held the ‘K-Beauty and Food Excellent Small and Venture Companies Awards Ceremony’ in partnership with Amazon Global Selling Korea, COSMAX, Korea Kolmar, Olive Young, Shinsegae DF, and E-Mart.

In July, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced the ‘K-Beauty Small and Venture Companies Global Competitiveness Enhancement Plan.’ As a follow-up, it launched the ‘K-Beauty Creator Challenge’ in collaboration with Amazon, Korea Kolmar, and COSMAX, and the ‘K-Super Rookie with Young’ program in partnership with Olive Young. Additionally, as a follow-up to the ‘Small and Venture Companies Globalization Measures’ announced in May, the ‘K-Strategic Items Awards’ to foster K-beauty and food companies was conducted in cooperation with Shinsegae DF and E-Mart.

First, the ‘K-Beauty Creator Challenge’ is a competition to discover and nurture promising companies leading K-beauty in the U.S. among companies with exports under 1 million USD. A total of 10 companies were selected, including 5 in the export promising product track and 5 in the new product idea track.

The ‘K-Super Rookie with Young’ program targets companies with exports under 1 million USD that are challenging global expansion. It supports experiential marketing by providing customers with opportunities to try cosmetics using Olive Young stores and other infrastructure, aiming to discover indie brands in the beauty sector. A total of 20 companies were selected.

The ‘K-Strategic Items Awards’ is a program to select promising small and venture companies in the beauty and food sectors that have recently stood out in the global market and to accelerate their overseas expansion. A total of 30 companies were selected, including 15 in the beauty sector and 15 in the food sector.

In the ‘K-Beauty Creator Challenge,’ the export promising product track and new product idea track winners were ▲Liquidnation and ▲Layers Cosmetic, respectively. In the ‘K-Super Rookie with Young’ program, ▲Cosmento Korea was selected, and in the beauty and food sectors of the ‘K-Strategic Items Awards,’ ▲Jung Saem Mool Beauty and ▲New Heritage were chosen as the top companies.

Selected companies will receive various export support benefits from the Ministry of SMEs and Startups and private partner companies through each program going forward.

Amazon will provide marketing strategy education and consulting to companies selected in the K-Beauty Creator Challenge. COSMAX and Korea Kolmar will offer one-on-one manufacturing consulting and prioritize prototype and initial volume production for companies in the new product idea track of the challenge.

Olive Young will support companies selected in the K-Super Rookie with Young program with benefits such as ▲global expansion strategy consulting, ▲dedicated sales space setup and store entry within Olive Young’s tourism-type stores, and ▲participation in events where they can meet buyers, including Olive Young events.

Shinsegae DF will support companies selected in the beauty sector of the K-Strategic Items Awards by operating pop-up stores within Shinsegae Duty Free and providing strategic consulting, while E-Mart will support companies selected in the food sector by operating pop-up stores in major stores and linking overseas stores and distribution networks to aid exports.

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups plans to provide additional support for overseas certification, online exports, and other export support projects for the next year to all companies selected across the three programs, in addition to private sector support.

Minister Oh Young-joo of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups stated, "Cosmetics, the top export item for small businesses, have reached a cumulative export value of 5.5 billion USD by October this year, surpassing last year’s total export value of 5.3 billion USD. It is expected that small and venture companies will achieve 1 million USD in cosmetics exports by 2027. We will continue to actively support the globalization of our small and venture companies by combining public and private efforts."

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