Government and Local Governments Invest 3.294 Trillion Won in Startup Support

Integrated Announcement of Startup Support Projects by Central Ministries and Local Governments
Includes 101 Organizations and a Total of 429 Startup Support Projects

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced on the 30th that it will issue the "2025 Integrated Announcement of Startup Support Projects by Central Ministries and Local Governments" worth a total of 3.294 trillion KRW on the 31st.

This announcement includes 429 startup support projects from 101 institutions. The total budget is 3.294 trillion KRW, with central ministries supporting 87 projects with 3.119 trillion KRW, and local governments, including Seoul City, supporting 342 projects with 175 billion KRW from 88 institutions.

By type of support project, loans account for the largest share at 1.5552 trillion KRW (12 projects), representing 47.1%, followed by commercialization at 766.6 billion KRW (23.3%), and technology development at 629.2 billion KRW (19.1%). The support project types are divided into eight categories: loans, commercialization, research and development (R&D), facilities/space/incubation, global expansion, mentoring/consulting/education, events/networking, and manpower.

Looking at the status by institution, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups allocated the largest budget of 2.9499 trillion KRW (94.6% of the central ministries). Following are the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (53 billion KRW), the Ministry of Science and ICT (45.4 billion KRW), and the Ministry of Environment (23.7 billion KRW). In total, 13 central ministries support 3.119 trillion KRW across 87 projects.

The Ministry of Unification and the Defense Acquisition Program Administration will establish new startup support projects next year. The Defense Acquisition Program Administration plans to support 3 projects, including the Defense Industry Innovation Cluster (Daejeon, Gumi) and the Defense Technology Startup Competition, with 1.3 billion KRW, while the Ministry of Unification will support 3 projects, including management improvement funds for North Korean defectors who are existing entrepreneurs and management consulting support projects, with 800 million KRW.

Local governments (17 metropolitan and 71 basic) will invest a total of 175 billion KRW in 342 projects in regions such as Seoul (38.2 billion KRW), Gyeonggi (20 billion KRW), and Gyeongnam (18.6 billion KRW).

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups will support about 669 promising startup companies in 10 new industry sectors such as system semiconductors and bio-health through the "Super-gap Startup 1000+ Project," providing approximately 131 billion KRW for commercialization and growth support. Additionally, a new "Deep Tech Value-up Specialized Program" will be launched with a budget of 7 billion KRW to support around 50 ventures and startups possessing innovative technologies to collaborate with large corporations according to their demand.

The Ministry of Environment will implement the "Eco Startup Support Project," providing startup funds and nurturing programs to 210 prospective entrepreneurs and startup companies with promising green industry items, with a budget of 23 billion KRW.

In the R&D sector, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups plans to support over 1,050 startups with less than 7 years of business experience and annual sales under 2 billion KRW through the "Startup Growth Technology Development" project, providing up to 1.5 billion KRW in technology development funds over a maximum of three years, with a total budget of 596 billion KRW. The Ministry of Science and ICT will assist researchers from universities and research institutes in starting businesses through four projects, including public technology-based market-linked startup exploration support (10.7 billion KRW) and laboratory-specialized startup leading university projects (10.7 billion KRW), with a total budget of 31.2 billion KRW.

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups has designated nine universities with excellent startup support capabilities as "Startup-Centered Universities," selecting about 800 (pre-)startup companies to support commercialization funds with a budget of 77.5 billion KRW. Through 17 Creative Economy Innovation Centers nationwide, a budget of 36.4 billion KRW will also support networking between startups and investors, investment briefings, and various open innovation activities with large and medium-sized enterprises.

Detailed information on the integrated announcement of startup support projects can be found on the K-Startup portal and the Ministry of SMEs and Startups website.

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