Ministry of SMEs and Startups to Recruit 915 Students for Youth Startup Academy This Year

[Asia Economy Reporter Donghyun Choi] The Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced on the 15th that it will recruit 915 students for the '2023 Youth Startup Academy' from the 16th to February 6th to foster young entrepreneurs.

The Youth Startup Academy is a program that discovers outstanding entrepreneurs with promising startup ideas and innovative technologies, providing a package of support for all stages of startup, including residency space, education and coaching, and commercialization funding.

Since its launch in 2011, the Youth Startup Academy has produced 6,741 young entrepreneurs nationwide across 18 regions. Graduates of the Youth Startup Academy have achieved cumulative sales of 3.6818 trillion KRW and created 17,150 new jobs over the past five years.

It has also established itself as a leading incubator for youth technology startups in Korea, producing unicorn companies (unlisted startups valued at over 1 trillion KRW) such as Toss and Zigbang.

This year, to activate private investment in youth startups and strengthen digital transformation education, the program will expand the private-led Youth Startup Academy and newly introduce a dedicated operator for digital transformation education.

Previously, the Small and Medium Business Corporation (SBC) operated or co-managed the Youth Startup Academy, holding the authority to select incubatees. In contrast, the private-led Youth Startup Academy allows private operators with investment resources and commercialization support capabilities to directly select outstanding young entrepreneurs and take responsibility for education, coaching, and investment attraction processes.

Graduates can expect private investment immediately upon graduation, and the operators plan to directly invest seed money in outstanding companies.

The private-led Youth Startup Academy was piloted last year at the Daejeon Youth Startup Academy. Starting this year, it will expand to include the Gyeonggi Northern, Busan, and Jeju Youth Startup Academies, operating a total of four locations.

To expand the educational scope of the Youth Startup Academy, a dedicated institution for digital transformation education, a field highly requested by young entrepreneurs recently, will be additionally introduced. Furthermore, for students requiring advanced education beyond common courses such as entrepreneurship and digital transformation, information on specialized institutions by field will be provided, and credits and tuition support will be offered when attending external institutions.

The newly revamped 2023 Youth Startup Academy targets representatives under 39 years old who have started their business within the last three years. Applications can be submitted through the K-Startup website by 2 PM on February 6th.

For detailed inquiries about admission to the Youth Startup Academy, contact any of the 18 Youth Startup Academies nationwide.