Gyeonggi Startup Summit Kicks Off on the 1st... Kim Dongyeon: "Gyeonggi to Spark the Third Venture Boom"

Kim Dongyeon, Governor of Gyeonggi Province, expressed his determination to spark the third venture boom in Gyeonggi, declaring, "With the Gyeonggi Startup Summit as a catalyst, Gyeonggi Province will take the lead in making Korea a paradise for startups."

Governor Kim made these remarks at the opening ceremony of the "2025 Gyeonggi Startup Summit," held on October 1 at the Suwon Convention Center. Hosted by Gyeonggi Province and organized by the Gyeonggi Business & Science Accelerator, this event is one of the largest international startup gatherings in Korea and is being held for the second time following last year.

In his opening address, Governor Kim said, "The theme of this event is 'Opening the Third Venture Boom in Gyeonggi.' Eight years ago, when I became Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs, I pledged to achieve innovative growth through the second venture boom, and this brings back many memories." He lamented, "The previous administration stalled the engine of Korea's economic growth for three years."

Gyeonggi Province Governor Kim Dongyeon is delivering a greeting at the opening ceremony of the "Gyeonggi Startup Summit," which opened on the 1st at Suwon Convention Center. Provided by Gyeonggi Province

He continued, "The newly launched government, based on the sovereignty of the people, has included the goal of becoming one of the world’s top four global venture powerhouses in its national agenda. Fostering venture startups is a core strategy for driving Korea’s true economic growth." He emphasized, "By expanding the success story of Pangyo, we will build an ecosystem and environment where anyone can take on the challenge of entrepreneurship and succeed, thereby solidifying Korea’s innovation ecosystem."

The highlight of the opening ceremony was the proclamation of the summit’s new brand identity (BI), "G-SUMMIT." Dignitaries and guests jointly declared the new BI on stage, expressing Gyeonggi Province’s commitment to leading the Venture 3.0 era.

This summit features participation from 216 companies and organizations, including 180 domestic and international startups (147 domestic, 33 overseas) and 36 global big tech firms and institutions.

Notably, leading domestic and international innovation companies, including AWS (Amazon Web Services), Alibaba Cloud, FuriosaAI, and MegazoneCloud, have established joint exhibition halls.

World-renowned venture capital firms such as Softbank Vision Fund (UK), Assembly Ventures (USA), Venturerock (Netherlands), and Antler (Singapore) have also joined the event.

There were a total of about 1,500 pre-arranged one-on-one meet-ups between startups and investors, with around 500 of these taking place at dedicated booths. Overall networking sessions are expected to exceed 1,000, more than double last year’s figure.

This year’s event runs through October 2, and further details can be found on the official website (g-startupsummit.or.kr).

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