A Win-Win Cooperation Ecosystem Opens Between Large Corporations and Startups

'Announcement of the Operation Plan for the Dae-Star Problem Solver Platform'

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[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Cheol-hyun] The Ministry of SMEs and Startups (Minister Park Young-sun, hereinafter referred to as the Ministry) announced on the 16th at the '18th Emergency Economic Central Countermeasures Headquarters Meeting' the operation plan for the 'Large-Startup Solver Platform,' where large corporations and startups collaborate to solve problems. This is a win-win cooperation policy that connects large corporations and startups by proposing and solving collaborative tasks to find the optimal collaboration partner, named the 'Large-Startup Solver Platform' to signify that the government acts as a bridge to enable mutual problem-solving and collaboration.

So far, the government has induced collaboration and coexistence between large corporations and startups through various co-growth policies and in-house venture cultivation, achieving visible results. However, it has been difficult for large corporations and startups to find the optimal collaboration partner, leading to a tendency to limit collaboration targets to internal resources such as existing business partners or in-house ventures. Through this 'Large-Startup Solver Platform' policy, it is expected that the mismatch between large corporations and startups will be resolved, combining the innovative capabilities of startups that can quickly respond to market changes with the global infrastructure of large corporations.

The 'Large-Startup Solver Platform' is currently conducting its pilot projects this year with the first phase 'Digital Dream9' and the second phase 'Artificial Intelligence (AI) Championship,' showing high interest and response with participation from 17 large corporations and 320 startups. Based on this year's achievements, the Ministry plans to systematize the 'Large-Startup Solver Platform' and fully promote it from next year.

First, a policy promotion system will be established so that the 'Large-Startup Solver Platform' can be recognized as a representative policy between large corporations and startups. The concept of 'in-house ventures,' which previously focused only on internal resources for collaboration, will be expanded to the 'Large-Startup Solver Platform' that collaborates with external startups, aiming to encompass the entire win-win cooperation ecosystem between large corporations and startups. To this end, the Ministry plans to revise the 'Small and Medium Enterprise Startup Support Act' to provide a legal basis, completing a dual promotion system for coexistence cooperation with both 'in-house venture cultivation' and the 'Large-Startup Solver Platform.'

Tasks focusing on big data-based AI issues and the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which have recently attracted attention, will be discovered. The Ministry will set AI and Fourth Industrial Revolution issues, based on fields with high business demand and active technology development by large corporations and startups, as key promotion areas and actively discover related tasks. In the case of big data-based AI issues, it is expected to accelerate the digital new deal by providing startups with opportunities to utilize high-quality industrial field data, which has been difficult to secure in the public sector, supplied by large corporations.

A system will also be established to continuously discover and select problems that large corporations and startups want to collaborate on. A dedicated system will be built to regularly announce problem discovery notices targeting large corporations and receive submissions, while continuously discovering problems using existing large corporation-startup networks such as the Creative Economy Innovation Centers. This will operate interactively so that startups can also propose business models that large corporations have not considered. Submitted problems will be periodically addressed through a long-term 'hackathon' method.

Furthermore, startups that propose excellent solutions will be linked to follow-up support from large corporations and the government to induce practical collaboration. Large corporations will support internal infrastructure such as equipment that startups find difficult to acquire, provide additional data, and connect support for securing additional sales channels using global networks and investments. The government plans to link up to 2.5 billion KRW in research and development, commercialization funds, and technology guarantees for startups that have started joint commercialization development with large corporations. Additionally, support such as technology data escrow and protection, as well as legal consultation, will be provided to ensure fair collaboration between large corporations and startups.