Ministry of SMEs and Startups Selects 15 Final Preliminary Unicorn Companies

Up to 20 Billion Won in Special Guarantees
for Scaling Up Preliminary Unicorns

On September 1, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced that it had selected 15 companies as final candidates for the Preliminary Unicorn program, aimed at fostering companies that will lead the global market. The Preliminary Unicorn Special Guarantee is a program that provides up to 20 billion won (approximately 15 million USD) in scaling-up funds to nurture companies into global unicorns. This year, 79 companies applied, resulting in a competition rate of 5.3 to 1.

This year, as in previous years, many companies with outstanding innovation and growth potential were selected after fierce competition. The selected companies reported an average revenue of 23.3 billion won, an average of 74 employees, average investment attraction of 35.2 billion won, and an average corporate valuation of 113.4 billion won.

The companies selected as preliminary unicorns this time are Liner, Seobuk, Solivis, Spanner, AstroZen, AGL, HTC, Eleven Corporation, Illimis Therapeutics, Kain Science, Colosseum Corporation, Travel Wallet, Team Sparta, Persona AI, and Plan M. Among them, Travel Wallet is a global payment platform company specializing in overseas payments, currency exchange, and remittance. The company was recognized for its innovation in addressing high fees and long processing times at traditional banks, as well as for its growth since launching its service in 2021.

Photo by Getty Images Bank

Liner, which provides the artificial intelligence (AI) search and deep research service 'LINER', was recognized for its innovation by ranking first in the world on the 'SimpleQA Benchmark', which evaluates the reliability of AI models. The company is expanding its overseas market share by targeting U.S. university campuses, raising expectations for its growth as a global AI company.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups has selected 126 preliminary unicorns through this program from 2019 to last year, providing a total of 797.2 billion won in special guarantees. As of the end of last year, these 126 companies saw their revenue increase by 174.0% and employment by 44.7% compared to the time of selection. Among them, 90 companies attracted an additional 5.2 trillion won in follow-up investments. Notably, 8 companies have become unicorns, and 13 have been listed on the KOSDAQ market.

Minister Han Seong-sook of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups stated, "The Preliminary Unicorn Special Guarantee program has established itself as a leading scaling-up program, having achieved numerous IPO successes and the growth of unicorn companies," adding, "We will do our utmost to ensure that preliminary unicorn companies become key drivers of our country's economic growth."

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