Incheon City to Provide 12.5 Billion KRW Special Guarantee for Young Entrepreneurs

Incheon City will launch the “2025 Incheon Youth Startup Special Guarantee” program, with a total fund of 12.5 billion KRW, to help young entrepreneurs overcome initial funding difficulties.

This initiative aims to activate youth entrepreneurship by providing credit guarantees to young small business owners who lack collateral, thereby improving their access to finance and mitigating management risks in the early stages of business.

The program targets young small business owners under the age of 39 (born on or after January 1, 1985) who operate businesses in Incheon and whose companies have been established for less than five years. The designated lending banks are NongHyup Bank and Shinhan Bank. The maximum loan amount is up to 30 million KRW, and the loan term is five years (with a one-year grace period followed by four years of monthly installment repayments). The city will subsidize an annual interest rate of 1.5% for the first three years.

For up to three years, young small business owners are responsible only for the interest exceeding the 1.5% subsidized by the city. From the fourth year, they must pay the full bank interest. The guarantee fee paid to Incheon Credit Guarantee Foundation is 0.8% per year. To encourage competition among financial institutions, the city introduced a rate proposal system and selected NongHyup Bank and Shinhan Bank as the partner banks, as they offered the lowest interest rates.

Loan applications can be submitted starting from May 28 via the “Bojeung Dream” app or the apps of the partner banks, until the funds are exhausted. However, those who have received credit guarantees within the past three months, companies with guaranteed amounts exceeding 100 million KRW, those in restricted business sectors, or those with reasons for restriction such as delinquency or arrears, are not eligible to apply.

An official from Incheon City stated, “We will spare no effort in providing practical financial support so that young entrepreneurs can grow into a driving force for the local economy.”

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