"300 Million Won Market Development Fund for Baby Unicorns, 10 Billion Won Special Guarantee for Preliminary Unicorns"

Ministry of SMEs and Startups Calls for Participants in Baby and Prospective Unicorn Programs
Discovering 60 and 20 Companies Respectively... Promoting Unicorn Leap
Prospective Unicorn Supporters Resolve Company Challenges

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bo-kyung] The Ministry of SMEs and Startups (MSS) will begin recruiting companies for this year's 'Baby Unicorn 200 Development Project' and 'Pre-Unicorn Special Guarantee' support programs starting from the 2nd.

These two programs aim to discover 60 Baby Unicorns and 20 Pre-Unicorns, providing each with 300 million KRW in market pioneering funds and 10 billion KRW in special guarantees, respectively.

The MSS helps Baby and Pre-Unicorn companies raise the necessary funds and provides investment attraction opportunities to grow into unicorns valued at 1 trillion KRW. For the first time this year, a dedicated support team called the 'Pre-Unicorn Supporters' will be formed to resolve company difficulties and conduct promotional activities.

Following last year, the 'National Recommendation System for Unicorn Candidate Companies' will also be operated this time. If there are unicorn candidate companies with innovation and growth potential, the public can directly recommend them from the 2nd to the 24th on the MSS and K-Unicorn websites.

"Supporting Unicorn Growth"... Providing Funding and Investment Opportunities

The Baby Unicorn 200 Development Project is designed to help companies grow into Pre-Unicorns (companies valued at over 100 billion KRW). Startups within 7 years of establishment with cumulative investment attraction between 2 billion KRW and less than 10 billion KRW are eligible to apply.

For applicant companies, after verifying basic requirements, the first stage involves a technology and business feasibility evaluation by the Korea Technology Finance Corporation (KOTEC). The second stage is an in-depth review of the submitted business plans by a professional evaluation panel. The final third stage is a public presentation evaluation jointly assessed by the professional panel and a national jury.

Selected companies will receive up to 300 million KRW in market pioneering funds and opportunities to network with domestic and international investors.

Additionally, Baby Unicorn participating companies receive preferential treatment in evaluations when applying for ▲special guarantees (KOTEC) ▲policy funds (Small and Medium Business Corporation) and ▲technology development (R&D) funds (Korea Institute for Advancement of Technology).

The Pre-Unicorn Special Guarantee is available to companies that possess innovation, growth potential, and market validation, or companies valued at over 100 billion KRW with a technology business evaluation rating of BB or higher.

Applicants undergo a first stage of eligibility review and document evaluation to select 50 companies, followed by a second stage of technology evaluation and guarantee screening to select about 30 companies.

Subsequently, like the Baby Unicorn 200, the final 20 supported companies are selected through a third stage public presentation evaluation jointly conducted by the professional evaluation panel and the national jury.

Selected companies receive up to 10 billion KRW in special guarantees (95% guarantee ratio, 1% fixed guarantee fee). Using any of six banks?Kookmin, Industrial Bank of Korea, NongHyup, Shinhan, Woori, and Hana?companies can receive 100% full guarantees and preferential interest rates.

Starting this year, the 'Pre-Unicorn Supporters' team will be formed to play a growth support role through monitoring follow-up investment attraction and managing difficulties.

The Pre-Unicorn Supporters team consists of veterans with over 30 years of experience at KOTEC, dedicated to supporting Pre-Unicorns. They regularly visit companies to listen to and resolve difficulties, provide information on unicorn support policies, and assist with company promotion.

Increased Sales and Jobs After Participation... Recognized Overseas as Well

Companies participating in last year's Baby Unicorn 200 and Pre-Unicorn Special Guarantee programs have shown strong results in investment attraction and job creation. Some companies also achieved outstanding accomplishments such as IPOs and awards at overseas startup competitions.

Among the 40 companies participating in last year's Baby Unicorn 200, 16 companies secured 109.7 billion KRW in follow-up investments within six months. Among 42 companies participating in the first round of Pre-Unicorn Special Guarantee in 2019-2020, 21 companies attracted 568.8 billion KRW in follow-up investments.

Companies like NgenBio and Hana Technology, selected for the 2019 Pre-Unicorn Special Guarantee, were recognized for their innovation and growth potential and successfully went public by listing on the KOSDAQ market.

Sales have also shown significant improvement. Among 27 companies supported by the 2019 Pre-Unicorn Special Guarantee, average sales increased by about 50% for two consecutive years, demonstrating a marked sales growth trend.

Last year, companies participating in the Baby Unicorn 200 and Pre-Unicorn Special Guarantee programs saw sales increase by 139% and 73.7%, respectively, compared to the same period the previous year.

Baby Unicorn 200 participating companies created 13 new jobs per company, totaling 530 new jobs within six months. Pre-Unicorn Special Guarantee participating companies also created 1,449 new jobs compared to the time of application.

DS Global, which developed an ultra-small nail printer, won the Innovation Award at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), and security authentication company SensTone achieved five awards at overseas startup competitions.

Lee Ok-hyung, Director of the Venture Innovation Policy Division at MSS, said, "The number of Pre-Unicorns valued at 100 billion KRW increased by 85 last year to reach 320, indicating a growing number of innovative companies with high growth potential. They are creating new jobs and emerging as new leaders in the stock market."

He added, "We will strive to select companies with excellent growth potential again this year and make innovative startups, ventures, and unicorn companies the driving force of economic growth through the K-Unicorn project."