Ministry of SMEs and Startups and Korea Startup Promotion Agency Hold 2025 Startup Accelerator Growth Summit

Awards for Startup Accelerators and Venture Capital Firms of the Year

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups and the Korea Startup Promotion Agency announced on December 10 that they held the "2025 Startup Accelerator Growth Summit" at COEX in Gangnam-gu, Seoul.

The Startup Accelerator Growth Summit is a side event of "COMEUP," the largest startup festival in Korea. The summit was organized to recognize startup accelerators (AC) who have contributed to the growth of early-stage startups, venture capital firms (VC) with outstanding financial soundness, and venture capital firms (VC) that have faithfully complied with self-regulation. Awards were presented, and opportunities for follow-up investments for startups were provided.

At the Startup Accelerator (AC) of the Year awards, five organizations-POSTECH Holdings, Seoul National University Holdings, Gangwon Center for Creative Economy & Innovation, JNP Global, and Seoul Center for Creative Economy & Innovation-received the Minister of SMEs and Startups Award. The winners were selected based on criteria such as startup selection, fund formation, investment, exit, and satisfaction ratings from invested companies.

At the Venture Capital Firm of the Year awards, five firms-Intervest, Commes Investment, Woori Venture Partners, SBVA, and Ecopro Partners-received the Minister of SMEs and Startups Award for achieving high scores in financial statements, fund management, personnel management, internal controls, and satisfaction surveys of invested companies.

Awards for self-regulation, introduced for the first time this year to promote voluntary self-regulation within the venture investment industry, were also presented. In the self-regulation category, IM Investment Partners and Xquared were recognized by the Korea Venture Capital Association for their contributions to enhancing the soundness of the venture investment market, and received the Minister of SMEs and Startups Award.

Notably, during this event, the Minister of SMEs and Startups presented startup accelerator registration certificates to Ewha Womans University Holdings, Alcove Korea, and Spark BioLab, who became the 500th applicants for accelerator registration since the introduction of the accelerator system in 2016. The event also featured a special lecture on "The Global Startup Ecosystem from the Perspective of Investors," a panel discussion on "Sharing Insights on the Growth of the AI and Startup Venture Ecosystem," and a follow-up investment demo day for five AI startups that received investment from accelerators.

Kim Bongdeok, Director of Venture Policy at the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, stated, "This event is meaningful as it recognizes startup accelerators and venture capital firms that have achieved outstanding results over the past year, and marks the milestone of surpassing 500 registered accelerators in the venture ecosystem. We will continue to strive for the accelerator system to lead innovation in the venture ecosystem."

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