35 out of 75 Companies from 1st to 5th Cohorts Successfully Raise 43.8 Billion KRW in Investment
[Asia Economy Reporter Yu Je-hoon] KDB Industrial Bank announced on the 11th that it will accept applications for support for the startup incubation program 'KDB NextONE 6th class' until December 13th this year. The companies finally selected in this recruitment process will be announced in January next year, and the incubation program will be conducted for five months at Mapo Front1.
Startups wishing to participate in KDB NextONE can check the recruitment announcement and register their application through the NextRound online platform, and startups in the 12 national strategic technology fields, which are key national growth industries, will be given preferential treatment during selection.
KDB Industrial Bank plans to provide selected companies with not only office space support at Mapo Front1 but also customized mentoring, IR consulting, business linkage, demo days, and other support for practical growth. In addition, it will provide step-by-step and customized support through organic connections with other venture platforms such as KDB NextRound, the leading domestic investment attraction platform, and NextRise, a startup fair.
In particular, this year, the incubation program operation was further advanced by expanding the overseas expansion mentoring program linked with KDB Silicon Valley Corporation and supporting investment attraction such as connecting with local venture capital (VC) through a special round in Singapore. In the first and second halves of this year, two KDB NextONE US expansion support webinars were held, where local VCs in Silicon Valley and senior entrepreneurs provided customized consulting for a total of 13 companies, and meetups in the US were also arranged.
In April, through NextRound in Singapore held locally in Singapore, investment attraction and networking were supported for Gomi Corporation (a global commerce platform), a 2nd class NextONE company. Gomi Corporation has shown rapid growth mainly in the Southeast Asian market, successfully raising 12.5 billion KRW in Series B funding earlier this year.
Since its launch in 2020, KDB NextONE has incubated 75 startups over five classes, and participating companies have created numerous business achievements such as business partnerships and patent applications, as well as new jobs. In particular, 35 of these companies raised a total of 43.8 billion KRW in investments during the incubation period. KDB Industrial Bank has made four direct investments in 2021 and three this year, and plans to expand the scale of direct investment next year, when an investment downturn is expected, to strengthen support for startups overcoming crises.
Meanwhile, the 15 startups selected in July and currently undergoing incubation in the 5th class will share incubation results and hold startup business model presentations (IR) through a demo day event to be held at the Glad Hotel in Yeouido this December. A KDB Industrial Bank official stated, "Although an investment market downturn is expected next year, we will continue to expand the scale of direct investment to help startups overcome crises and further strengthen comprehensive support linked with venture platforms and global networks."
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