Seongnam City Recruiting "2026 Star Companies"...Up to 80 Million Won in Exceptional Support Per Firm

Seongnam City Fully Launches Star Company Development Project
Applications Open Until March 5

Seongnam City in Gyeonggi Province (Mayor Shin Sangjin) is set to fully launch the "2026 Star Company Development Project," which aims to discover promising small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that will drive technological innovation and export-led growth, and nurture them into global hidden champions.

View of Seongnam City Hall. Provided by Seongnam City.

The Star Company Development Project selects local SMEs with high growth potential and provides intensive support through customized programs tailored to corporate needs, such as product innovation, market development, and smart innovation. This year, the city plans to invest a total budget of 594 million won (including matching funds from the province) to select approximately eight companies.

Selected companies will receive up to 80 million won per company, within 70% of the total project cost. The subsidy can be used to carry out tasks independently designed by each company, such as prototype development and design improvement, securing intellectual property rights, participation in domestic and overseas exhibitions, promotion and market development, and digital transformation.

Eligible applicants are SMEs with their headquarters or factories located in Seongnam City, with 2024 sales of at least 5 billion won and less than 70 billion won. For knowledge service businesses, companies with sales of at least 2 billion won are eligible to apply. In addition, they must have an in-house corporate research institute or a dedicated research department, and must meet at least one of the following criteria: a research and development expenditure ratio of 3% or more to sales, or an export ratio of 30% or more.

Seongnam City also supported a total of 40 projects for eight companies through this program last year, contributing to strengthening corporate competitiveness and increasing sales.

In particular, this year the city plans to reinforce its focused support system for outstanding companies by raising the support ceiling from the previous 76 million won to 80 million won, and to further systematize the "growth ladder" support that connects promising SMEs to star companies and, ultimately, to global strong SMEs.

Companies wishing to participate in the project can check the eligibility requirements and required documents on the Gyeonggi Business Portal (eGBIZ) website and then apply online by March 5, 2026.

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