Promising Domestic Startups Meet with Japanese VCs

Jungjingong-Shinhan Financial Hold Pitching Day
Supporting Korean Startups' Entry into the Japanese Market
12 Startups Participated

The Small and Medium Business Corporation (Chairman Kim Hak-do, hereinafter referred to as SBC) and Shinhan Financial Group (Chairman Jin Ok-dong) announced that they will hold a pitching event on the 26th in Tokyo, Japan, to support the successful entry of promising Korean startups into the Japanese market.

This event was promoted as a follow-up project to the memorandum of understanding signed by the two organizations last April, in order to proactively respond to the increasing demand for Korean startups to enter the Japanese market following the Korea-Japan summit. About 80 people, including CEOs of startups and venture capitalists (VCs) from Korea and Japan, will participate.

Starting with a keynote speech on 'Successful Entry into the Japanese Market and Investment Attraction,' pitching sessions will be held by 12 Korean startups that have passed rigorous evaluations of marketability by local VCs and other professional institutions. The two organizations will support various linkage programs to ensure the successful entry of the 12 domestic startups participating in the event into the Japanese market, and plan to announce the results of about eight months of support, including local investment attraction, through a 'Demo Day' at the end of November.

The detailed support includes ▲ localization diagnosis and product/service improvement for startups using the SBC Tokyo Global Business Center ▲ global value-up programs, investment review, and local investor networking through Shinhan Futures Lab Japan. Ahn Jung-gon, head of SBC’s Global Growth Division, said, "We will actively support this event to serve as a bridge for the successful entry of domestic startups into the Japanese market by utilizing SBC’s know-how in supporting the localization of small and medium enterprises and ventures in Japan."