18 Outstanding Teams to Be Selected Through Final Presentation Contest on the 19th of Next Month
On the 22nd, Park Young-sun, Minister of SMEs and Startups, delivered a greeting at the CheongcheongCon online launch ceremony held at Tipstown. Photo by Ministry of SMEs and Startups
[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Heeyoon] “As the environment shifted to non-face-to-face due to COVID-19, we naturally increased the production of promotional content and distributed it immediately in five languages as soon as editing was completed, enabling global promotion and increasing sales.”
At the launch ceremony of the startup competition 'CheongCheongCon' held by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups on the 22nd at Tipstown in Seoul, Kwak Taeil, CEO of PalmSkin, who attended as a senior entrepreneur, explained his company's experience in response to a junior entrepreneur’s question about how they promoted in the global market.
CheongCheongCon is an acronym for 'Senior Youth Leading Junior Youth Startup Competition,' a contest aimed at connecting young people’s non-face-to-face startup ideas to actual startups. It was newly budgeted in the third supplementary budget passed in July.
Unlike existing startup competitions, it is characterized by senior entrepreneurs leading the startup industry directly participating in the evaluation process and mentoring. A total of 738 teams applied, showing a competition rate of 41 to 1. The launch ceremony was arranged as an opportunity for 60 youth startup teams who passed preliminary rounds through written and face-to-face evaluations to directly communicate and share experiences with senior youth entrepreneurs who would serve as advisors. Considering the COVID-19 situation, the event was held simultaneously on-site and online.
Senior youth entrepreneurs included Kwak Taeil, CEO of PalmSkin, who was selected as one of Forbes' '300 Asia Global Leaders under 30,' and Ahn Eunhee, CEO of WhiteScan. During the 'Senior-Junior Dialogue Time,' junior youth startup teams asked senior entrepreneurs specific questions about the actual commercialization of startup ideas and investment attraction strategies, sharing their experiences with each other.
Ahn Eunhee, CEO of WhiteScan, who attended as a senior entrepreneur, said, “Three years ago, I participated as a mentee at the Korea Institute of Startup & Entrepreneurship Development and sought much advice. It is an honor to return as a senior entrepreneur. After completing the white hacker training course in 2016, I dreamed of starting a business and created a cyber security intelligence platform with the prize money from winning a competition. Now, we have achieved results by supplying to institutions such as the Ministry of National Defense, Army Headquarters, and the Supreme Prosecutors' Office.”
The 60 participants of CheongCheongCon who attended the launch ceremony will participate in the final presentation on the 19th of next month after a four-week mentoring process with senior youth entrepreneurs. The 18 selected outstanding teams will receive up to 120 million KRW in commercialization funds and linked technical guarantees.
Park Youngsun, Minister of SMEs and Startups, stated, “The government will always support and encourage young people so that their ideas and potential can be fully realized, leading to startups and growing into unicorn companies that lead the world. We will create an optimal environment by establishing the Smart Korea Fund to help startups in the non-face-to-face and digital sectors grow bigger and provide initial sales channels through the K-Non-face-to-face platform.”
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