SMEs Ministry to Recruit New TIPS Operators

Recruiting Around 30 Operators
Maximum Additional Points for Investment Firms Outside the Seoul Metropolitan Area

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced on September 15 that it is recruiting TIPS (Tech Incubator Program for Startup) operators from among investors with investment and incubation capabilities, such as startup accelerators and early-stage venture capital firms.

TIPS is a public-private partnership startup support system in which private operators use their expertise and capabilities to select and invest in startups, and the government provides linked support for research and development (R&D) and startup commercialization funds.

So far, more than 3,700 startups have participated in the program, attracting over 17 trillion won in follow-up investments and establishing TIPS as a leading startup support program.

In particular, as the new government's economic growth strategy has identified the discovery of promising companies through TIPS as a key task, the first step in strengthening the TIPS program will be to significantly increase the number of operators responsible for discovering and recommending promising companies.

Currently, 120 operators are active, and through this announcement, the ministry plans to recruit approximately 30 additional operators. In this recruitment, the highest additional points will be given to investment firms located outside the Seoul metropolitan area to vitalize regional startup ecosystems. Additional points will also be awarded to investment firms with outstanding pre-TIPS recommendation records and to operators of Scale-up TIPS, in order to strengthen connections with upstream and downstream industries.

To strengthen performance management of operators, those selected in this round will first be designated as preliminary operators and, after a two-year evaluation, will be converted to regular operators.

Cho Kyungwon, Director of Startup Policy at the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, stated, "The reason TIPS has been recognized as a successful program is thanks to the active participation of capable operators," adding, "We hope that excellent investment firms will join as TIPS operators, actively discover promising technology startups, and provide more growth opportunities, thereby revitalizing the startup ecosystem."

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