'KAIST Technology Startup Partnership' Program Operation Begins
[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bong-su] The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), a cradle of Korean venture startups, aims to create another unicorn company (a startup valued at over 1 trillion KRW) by matching faculty members with excellent technologies and entrepreneurship experts from various fields.
On the 12th, KAIST announced that it will operate the KAIST Entrepreneurial Partnership (KEP) program, which encourages startup activation and achievement creation among faculty members possessing outstanding technologies.
This is a customized open innovation startup support measure based on market and customer demand, designed to realize the 'One Lab, One Startup' vision, part of the new cultural strategy promoted by President Kwang-Hyung Lee, who took office earlier this year. It was established to increase the success rate of technology commercialization by connecting the first and best technologies researched by students and professors on campus to startups. The core of the program is to form startup teams where in-house entrepreneurs (Entrepreneur In Residence), external entrepreneurship experts (Entrepreneurial Partners) from large corporations and venture companies, and prospective KAIST faculty and students can collaborate openly.
The formed startup teams will verify their success potential by executing team building, customer discovery, product/market fit confirmation, and proof of concept (POC) within approximately six months of pilot operation, and will receive support for incidental expenses incurred during this period.
To this end, KAIST plans to select experts well-versed in both technology and business as in-house entrepreneurs and recruit them as invited professors affiliated with the Startup Institute. The invited in-house entrepreneurs will serve as mentors/advisors, startup coordinators, accumulate startup databases, and facilitate networking in key fields such as materials/components/equipment, bio/pharmaceuticals, artificial intelligence/digital transformation, and climate crisis response. KAIST intends to recognize their contributions as core facilitators of KAIST science and technology startups and as concierge guides tailored to different startup types by granting them treatment equivalent to 'KAIST donors.'
Additionally, about 30 field experts with experience in new business projects, startups, and investments from large corporations, venture companies, and venture capital will be recruited as startup experts. They will take on roles such as CEO, CTO, CFO, and CMO, which may be somewhat lacking in technology-based new startup teams, and assist with business-linked technology development (R&BD), technology marketing, attracting venture investments from large corporations, mergers and acquisitions, or initial public offerings.
According to a survey conducted independently by KAIST, internal members wishing to start startups identified difficulties in securing startup professionals (72.2%), complex startup approval procedures (33.3%), and lack of startup knowledge and funds (27.8%) as the most significant challenges.
Kim Young-tae, head of the KAIST Startup Institute, said, "If the KEP program is successfully established, it is expected to encourage startups among faculty and students who have mature technologies and ideas but lack the capability to implement and grow them as business items," adding, "It will create exemplary cases of faculty and student startups and foster a virtuous cycle culture of entrepreneurial spirit and venture ecosystem by spreading startup DNA."
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