Daegu and Gwangju Host 'Welcome to TIPS'... Startup Investment Support

Expansion of Non-Capital Region Startup Company Participation

Scenes from the 'Welcome to TIPS' event for startups outside the metropolitan area

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Daeseop] The Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced on the 19th that it will additionally hold 'Welcome to TIPS' events in the Yeongnam and Honam regions to expand the participation of non-capital region startup companies in the TIPS program.

The events are scheduled to be held in Daegu on the 15th of next month and in Gwangju on November 12th, respectively. Previously, events were held in Busan and Daejeon on the 3rd and 17th of this month, respectively.

Welcome to TIPS, which started in 2017, allows participating startups to receive investment consultations through pre-matching with TIPS operators. At the event, 10 companies will also give investment presentation (IR) pitches, and the top 3 startups will be awarded an additional point when applying for the Pre-TIPS program, which is the stage before TIPS. Since 2017, 13 startups that participated in Welcome to TIPS have been selected for TIPS.

TIPS is a program where private operators make initial investments and provide incubation to startup teams, and the government matches support such as research and development (R&D) funds (up to 700 million KRW). Pre-TIPS supports early-stage startups that have attracted angel investments of 10 million KRW or more with commercialization funds of up to 100 million KRW for one year.

Kim Mingyu, head of the Technology Startup Division at the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, said, "To strengthen support for youth entrepreneurship, we plan to expand the scale of support for the TIPS program by more than 30% next year and newly support 400 startups."