Minister Kwon Chil-seung of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups Listens to On-site Difficulties of Investment-type R&D Operators

The comprehensive public procurement expo, "Korea Nara Market Expo 2022," aimed at expanding domestic public market channels for excellent small and medium-sized enterprise products and supporting entry into overseas procurement markets, was held on the 13th at KINTEX in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province. Kwon Chil-seung, Minister of SMEs and Startups, who attended the opening ceremony, is delivering a congratulatory speech. Photo by Moon Ho-nam munonam@

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[Asia Economy Reporter Kwak Minjae] The Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced on the 20th that it held a communication session with investment-type R&D (Scale-up TIPS) operators and representatives of supported companies at TIPS Town in Yeoksam-dong, Seoul.

This meeting was organized to review the progress made since the announcement of the "Expansion Plan for Investment-type R&D" at the end of August last year, listen to field difficulties, and discuss future policy directions.

Established in July 2020, investment-type R&D differs from the existing grant-based R&D by linking with the investment market, where venture capitalists (VCs) make initial investments and the government supports with follow-up matching investments, creating a market-friendly R&D support method. The support budget has also been gradually expanded. As of March this year, matching investments worth 45.5 billion KRW have been made for 35 promising SMEs and startups. The plan is to expand this to 100 billion KRW this year.

To further activate investment-type R&D, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups established a dedicated track for operators applying the TIPS method called "Operator Exclusive Track (Scale-up TIPS)" in August last year. In January this year, five promising SMEs and startups were selected for the first time through this dedicated track and received matching investments.

Minister Kwon Chil-seung encouraged investment-type R&D operators and participating companies during his opening remarks at the meeting. Afterwards, operators and supported companies shared on-site difficulties and proposed ideas for system improvements.

Subsequently, discussions were held on various suggestions and future policy directions, including follow-up support such as global market entry programs, expanding the scope of external experts eligible for stock options, and raising the matching investment limits.

Minister Kwon stated, "I hope that through the investment-type R&D system, a 'market-based R&D innovation ecosystem' will be activated where technology-intensive promising SMEs and startups continuously challenge, innovate, and grow." He added, "The Ministry of SMEs and Startups will continue to communicate more and actively support to ensure that market-friendly R&D support can produce results."

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