33 Teams in K-Global Startup Contest... 200 Million KRW Support for Top 5 Teams

[Asia Economy Reporter Seulgina Jo] The Ministry of Science and ICT announced on the afternoon of the 30th that it held the launch ceremony for participating teams, marking the start of the '2021 K-Global Startup Contest.'

Now in its 12th year, this contest is a program that discovers startups with innovative ICT-based ideas and supports their establishment and commercialization.

The Ministry of Science and ICT conducted the contest for about four weeks from April 27 to May 27, and after the final evaluation, selected a total of 33 teams consisting of early-stage companies (within 3 years of establishment) and prospective entrepreneurs. These include 10 teams in the general ICT field, 5 teams in the non-face-to-face field, and 18 teams in specialized fields. A total of 376 teams applied, resulting in a competition rate of 11.4 to 1.

At the launch ceremony held online that day, after introducing the support program, special lectures by senior companies from the contest were conducted.

Going forward, participating teams will receive support for about six months, including intensive guidance from experts, field-specific technical seminars, collaboration space support, training to enhance promotion and investment attraction capabilities for excellent companies, and opportunities for investment attraction. Support will also be provided for Naver Cloud’s cloud platform services, collaboration with excellent startups through Naver D2 Startup Factory (D2SF), and development tools for integrated development environments from JetBrains. Kim Woojin, CEO of Business Canvas, a participant in last year’s contest, will share know-how as a senior company and has decided to sponsor their knowledge management-based document collaboration tool ‘Typed.’

Each participating team will commercialize their innovative ideas during the support period, and if selected as an excellent startup at the year-end final pitching competition, they can receive additional startup support funds totaling 200 million KRW. The grand prize is 100 million KRW (1 team), the excellence award is 50 million KRW (1 team), the merit award is 30 million KRW (1 team), and the encouragement award is 10 million KRW (2 teams).

Lee Seungwon, Director of the Information and Communication Industry Policy Bureau at the Ministry of Science and ICT, stated, “At the center of the ICT industry, which has repeatedly grown and developed by turning crises into opportunities, have been creative and challenging startups. We support the hope that the participating teams will illuminate the future of Korea’s ICT industry and succeed as innovative companies that can lead the world.”