[Interview] Moon Seok-jin, Seodaemun District Mayor, "Creating 'Sinchon Venture Valley' Connecting Youth Startup Hub and Residency Facilities in Sinchon Area"

Opening of Youth Startup Dream Center Branch 2 in Renovated Old Goshiwon... Yonsei University Campus Town Startup Space 'S-Cube' Established... Ewha Womans University Campus Town Becomes 'Style Tech' Industry Hub... After Creating Startup Youth Rental Housing, 165 Single-Person Households to Move In

[Asia Economy Reporter Jong-il Park] “Seodaemun-gu is home to nine universities, the most in the nation, earning it the title of a ‘Youth City.’ We will promote specialized policies supporting youth housing and employment to back the dreams of young people gathered here from all over the country, centered around these universities.”

Mun Seok-jin, Mayor of Seodaemun-gu, recently stated, “We will develop the Sinchon area, emerging as a hub for youth startups, into the ‘Sinchon Venture Valley,’ connecting startup bases and residency facilities for young entrepreneurs.”

Mayor Mun’s vision is steadily taking shape. In May this year, the district opened the second Youth Startup Dream Center (19 Yonsei-ro 2-da-gil), remodeled from an old goshiwon. Thirteen youth startup teams in IT and cultural arts fields have moved in, and through linkage with the first Youth Startup Dream Center, new vitality is expected to be infused into Sinchon.

The first center, opened in November 2017, houses eight companies that recorded sales of 6.8 billion KRW by last year, proving the potential and support effects of youth startups.

The district provides resident companies in the Dream Center with independent office spaces suitable for living, as well as free startup capacity-building programs and networking opportunities. The residency period is one year, with the possibility of a one-year extension based on performance evaluation. Through this project, the district supports young entrepreneurs facing early-stage startup difficulties while simultaneously addressing youth housing poverty and unemployment issues.

Seodaemun-gu also promotes the Campus Town project, where public institutions, universities, and the local community collaborate to discover innovative youth startup resources and create a startup ecosystem in the Sinchon area.

Specifically, the Changcheon Senior Welfare Center (61 Yonsei-ro 2-na-gil) will be remodeled to open Yonsei University’s startup base space, ‘S-Cube,’ in September. It will include 20 individual startup spaces, shared workspaces, meeting rooms, and a maker space to allow entrepreneurs to focus on item development and generate planning and ideas.

For the ‘Yonsei University Campus Town’ startup team recruitment, 207 teams applied, demonstrating strong entrepreneurial will among youth despite COVID-19. After document screening and face-to-face evaluations, 60 teams were selected. These teams were affiliated with or graduated from 26 universities including Yonsei University, Seoul National University, and KAIST. Their startup items mainly involved the Fourth Industrial Revolution, information and communication, knowledge-based services, and medical fields.

The selected teams receive one-stop services including startup funding, education, networking, technical mentoring, and investment attraction, with priority residency at S-Cube (S3) granted based on performance evaluation.

Particularly, this site nurtures young entrepreneurs based on the university’s startup support model and Seodaemun-gu’s urban regeneration know-how. Additionally, a ‘Smart Cultural Belt’ program is underway to combine ‘culture-related startup ideas’ with ‘smart technology’ to revitalize local cultural content and foster cultural ventures.

The district is also working with Ewha Womans University on a Campus Town project to develop the Ewha commercial district into a startup hub for the ‘Style-Tech’ industry. Style-Tech refers to a new industry that integrates advanced information technologies such as IoT, AI, and virtual reality into lifestyle fields like fashion and beauty.

In response to the call for related startup teams, 45 teams applied for six available spots, showing enthusiastic participation. They proposed diverse ideas including non-face-to-face services, shared service platforms, and big data-based curation.

Six teams selected through first and second rounds of evaluation receive startup activity funds for prototype production and marketing. They also participate in mentoring linked with large corporations and startup education programs. Recently, the ‘Style-Tech Lab’ (33 Ewha Womans University 1-gil) and ‘Experience Studio’ (87 Ewha Womans University-gil), spaces where they can exhibit and test their prototypes, opened.

Seodaemun-gu aims to maximize synergy by linking the Yonsei University and Ewha Womans University Campus Town projects with the ‘Sinchon Venture Valley’ development.

Furthermore, Seodaemun-gu plans to complete the Sinchon Startup Youth Rental Housing (Changcheon-dong 20-81 and 8 other lots), a 13-story building with three underground floors, housing 165 single-person households, by the end of next year. This is based on the judgment that stable housing provision at the initial stage is essential for the survival of young startups full of challenge and creativity.

The first and 13th floors of the building will operate as community spaces, with the entire 401.33㎡ area on the 13th floor dedicated to a youth startup incubator space. The district plans to coordinate with SH Corporation and the Bank권 Youth Startup Foundation (D.CAMP) to enable startup youth from Sinchon and nearby areas, including those from Campus Town, to move in.

Mayor Mun Seok-jin said, “We will actively promote the creation of ‘Sinchon Venture Valley,’ which will play a key role in youth startups in the Sinchon area. Seodaemun-gu will do its utmost to provide a new place for young people with entrepreneurial dreams to take on new challenges.”

He added, “I hope that Seodaemun local government’s proactive efforts for youth dreams will spread to central ministries and other local governments, becoming a driving force to create a happy Korea for young people.”