[Asia Economy Reporter Junhyung Lee] The Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced on the 21st that it is recruiting participants for the largest startup competition in Korea, "Challenge! K-Startup 2021."
After this recruitment ends, Challenge! K-Startup will begin nine preliminary leagues operated by participating ministries to select entrepreneurs who will advance to the integrated finals. The participating ministries include the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Science and ICT, Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, among a total of 10 ministries. Since the eligibility criteria, recruitment period, application offices, and required documents differ for each preliminary league, it is necessary to check the recruitment announcements by each ministry. The competition will open in September this year.
A total of 180 teams will advance to the integrated finals. The advancing teams will be evaluated step-by-step through the preliminary, main, and final rounds. The final 20 teams that reach the grand championship will receive a total prize of 1.53 billion KRW and certificates according to their rankings.
Challenge! K-Startup began in 2016 as a collaboration among four ministries: the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Science and ICT, and Ministry of National Defense. Last year, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, and the Korean Intellectual Property Office joined, and this year the number of participating ministries has expanded to 10.
The number of preliminary leagues has also increased along with the participating ministries. The "CheongCheongCon," which was separately held last year with the concept of senior young entrepreneurs discovering and nurturing junior young entrepreneurs, has been newly established as the Youth League, making a total of nine preliminary leagues this year. Additionally, the Korean Intellectual Property Office plans to strengthen the discovery of prospective entrepreneurs with excellent intellectual property rights in the hydrogen sector through the Intellectual Property League, which it operates in cooperation with the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.
The participating ministries will link their policies to support the smooth growth of outstanding startup teams discovered through this competition. Prospective startup teams advancing to the integrated finals will receive benefits such as exemption from the two-month practical startup education course provided by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups and priority support from the Korean Intellectual Property Office’s Intellectual Property Stepping Stone program.
Furthermore, the 20 teams advancing to the grand championship will receive benefits such as exemption from document evaluation, technical evaluation, and guarantee fees when applying for startup support projects from the Ministry of SMEs and Startups. Companies with tourism-related business items will additionally receive benefits from being selected as win-win cooperation companies in the tourism sector by the Korea Tourism Organization.
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