Recruiting (Preliminary) Youth Startup Companies to Participate in the 'Seongbuk Youth Startup Challenge'

300 Million KRW Commercialization Support Fund per Team, In-depth Mentoring Support

[Asia Economy Reporter Jongil Park] Seongbuk-gu (Mayor Lee Seung-ro) is recruiting (prospective) youth startup companies to participate in the 'Seongbuk Youth Startup Challenge' from June 8 to 15.

The 'Seongbuk Youth Startup Challenge' is a project jointly promoted by Seongbuk-gu and the startup support teams of six local universities (Korea University, Kookmin University, Dongduk Women's University, Seokyeong University, Sungshin Women's University, Hansung University) as part of the 'Industry-Academia Cooperation Agreement for Job Creation in the 4th Industrial Revolution' signed last September.

Applicants must be early-stage startups (companies) within three years of establishment located in Seongbuk-gu or prospective startup teams planning to establish in Seongbuk-gu, with the representative aged 39 or younger. Through this project, Seongbuk-gu aims to discover and support youth possessing promising business items (ICT, apps, platform development, software, infectious disease prevention, etc.) and technologies.

In particular, teams submitting smart startup items in the 'fashion apparel manufacturing' sector, which constitutes a large part of the local manufacturing industry, will receive additional points. The plan is to support the ideas of local youth companies to be used for improving regional industries.

After the first round of document screening and the second round of face-to-face interviews, nine teams will be selected. The final selected companies will receive 3 million KRW in commercialization support funds until December this year and will carry out their business while receiving in-depth mentoring from university startup support teams and the One-Person Creative Enterprise Support Center operated by Seongbuk-gu.

Lee Seung-ro, Mayor of Seongbuk-gu, said, “Many young entrepreneurs are facing difficulties as consumption and investment have contracted due to COVID-19. This project was planned to help young (prospective) companies in Seongbuk-gu who have good business ideas and technologies but lack initial funds. We will continue to strive to be a strong support and facilitator for young entrepreneurs through various startup support projects.”

For more details, please check the announcement section on the Seongbuk-gu Office website.