DGIST (President Kook Yang) startup companies ‘CityCells’ and ‘GeoRobot’ have achieved the great feat of being finally selected for the ‘Super-gap Startup 1000+ Project’ hosted by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups. They will receive up to 1.1 billion KRW in funding over the next three years, including up to 600 million KRW for commercialization and 500 million KRW for R&D based on corporate demand.
The Ministry of SMEs and Startups’ ‘Super-gap Startup 1000+ Project’ selects technology-based startups in 10 new industry sectors and supports them with more than 2 trillion KRW through public-private cooperation over the next five years.
Among them, 150 outstanding deep-tech startups are selected in five major fields: system semiconductors, bio-health, future mobility, eco-friendly energy, and robotics. Amid a competition ratio of 13.1 to 1, two DGIST startups were finally selected.
Professor Minseok Kim, CEO of CityCells (left in the photo), and Taewoon Kang, Chief Researcher and CEO of GeoRobot.
CityCells (CEO: Professor Kim Min-seok of the Department of New Biology), selected in the bio-health field, is currently growing into a company that provides innovative approaches to cancer diagnosis and treatment. Based on circulating tumor cell (CTC) liquid biopsy technology, it implements a total solution for personalized cancer diagnosis and bispecific antibody drug development.
GeoRobot (CEO: Principal Researcher Kang Tae-hoon of the Intelligent Robotics Research Division), selected in the robotics field, promotes the world’s first ‘human-robot collaborative mobile robot platform’ as its business item, contributing to the growth of the robotics industry based on accumulated research achievements in the robotics field.
Lee Dong-ha, Director of Industry-Academia Cooperation at DGIST, said, “Based on this selection for the Super-gap Startup project, we plan to promote various activities to foster continuous growth and attract investment for startup companies. In addition, we aim to nurture next-generation deep-tech startups by promoting projects such as the DGIST technology supply-type startup activation project.”
The DGIST Industry-Academia Cooperation Group is striving to nurture technology entrepreneurs through the operation of the DGIST Startup Academy (DSA) and the Technical Venture-leader Academy (TVA), and is also leading efforts to support the growth of startup companies through technology and management support projects and the operation of the Dalseong Youth Innovation Center.
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