Recruitment of 200 Target Companies for SW High-Growth Club
[Asia Economy Reporter Seulgina Jo] The Ministry of Science and ICT announced on the 10th that it will recruit target companies for the 'SW High Growth Club 200' project, which supports the growth of venture and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) leading the future software (SW) industry, from the 12th of this month to March 12.
The SW High Growth Club 200 is a project that discovers 200 SW companies expected to achieve high growth with employment or sales growth rates exceeding 20% over three years or already on a high growth trajectory, and provides focused support such as marketing, overseas expansion, growth strategy mentoring, and technology development. It was first implemented in 2019, supporting 60 companies.
This year, an additional 50 prospective high-growth companies and 11 high-growth companies possessing digital new technologies of the 4th Industrial Revolution such as artificial intelligence (AI), cloud, and blockchain will be selected and supported.
High-growth companies will receive support for up to two years, with prospective high-growth companies receiving around 100 million KRW per year and high-growth companies around 300 million KRW per year. They will be helped to autonomously design and implement growth tasks such as marketing and product globalization together with professional mentors. Additionally, through professional mentors and support organizations such as the National IT Industry Promotion Agency (NIPA), various close mentoring services including networking with large corporations·investors and leadership coaching will be provided.
The Ministry of Science and ICT will separately select five prospective high-growth companies and three high-growth companies among the selected companies that are recognized for the necessity of innovative technology development and support technology development costs of up to 400 million KRW per year for two years.
Furthermore, companies with excellent project evaluation results will be given opportunities to participate in events such as the ‘SW GO Festival’ and ‘SW GO Round,’ which serve as product promotion and networking opportunities, and one-on-one meetings with investors will also be arranged.
The 60 companies selected for the SW High Growth Club 200 last year achieved a 28% increase in sales and a 207% increase in employment compared to the previous year. Among them, 21 companies attracted a total of 120.7 billion KRW in new investments. Raon People was listed on the KOSDAQ market, and Suar Lab was acquired by a US company for 230 billion KRW.
Song Kyung-hee, Director of Software Policy at the Ministry of Science and ICT, said, “We will actively support capable SW companies to scale up one step further.”
Detailed application requirements and support contents can be found on the websites of the National IT Industry Promotion Agency (NIPA) and the Institute for Information & Communications Technology Planning & Evaluation (IITP) from the 12th. The Ministry of Science and ICT also plans to hold regional project briefings on the 26th in the Southeast region, the 27th in the Chungcheong region, and March 4 in the metropolitan area.
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