'Technology Venture Incubator' KAIST, Recruiting Applicants for Nationwide Startup Program

KAIST Open Venture Lab Poster.

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bong-su] Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) announced on the 4th that it is recruiting applicants nationwide for the technology-based startup support program, ‘2021 KAIST Open Venture Lab (OVL)’, until the 15th.

Open Venture Lab is a program that supports prospective entrepreneurs to activate technology startups based on KAIST’s excellent education and research capabilities. As of the 17th of last month, anyone planning a technology startup who has not yet registered a business or established a corporation can participate.

About 15 teams will be selected in this recruitment, and the selected prospective startup teams will receive various startup-related infrastructure owned by KAIST, including startup education, shared facilities and spaces, mentoring, and commercialization support costs.

The Open Venture Lab program operates in two stages. First, a ‘Pre-OVL course’ is conducted for two months for the selected candidates, and then those who pass the transition evaluation receive support for the ‘Main-OVL’ course for six months. The teams selected in the first round enter the Pre-OVL course, which is the startup preparation stage. In this course, business model planning, matching technology exploration, and business model coaching are conducted for startup preparation. Through curriculum operation such as concretizing startup ideas, entrepreneurship lectures, and customized mentoring, the entrepreneurs’ capabilities are assessed and training for problem-solving is carried out.

Teams that pass the Pre-OVL enter the Main-OVL course, the full-fledged startup stage, for six months. This course operates an advanced program for business model advancement as part of more practical educational support, accelerating startups by linking business process design, prototype production, and funding attraction.

In particular, to produce optimal prototypes, the Idea Factory program is linked to support the production of minimum viable products, and technology search consulting is also provided to integrate KAIST technology along with the costs necessary for commercialization.

All teams participating in the Pre-OVL and Main-OVL courses are given opportunities to utilize KAIST’s startup-related infrastructure, including KAIST internal and external startup education connections, dedicated faculty mentoring, and dedicated coordinating composed of KAIST alumni startups and accelerators. During the Open Venture Lab participation period, the selected teams can also jointly use startup preparation spaces.

For more details, visit the KAIST Startup Incubation Center website, and submit the application form, idea technology documents, and other required documents via email by the 15th.