Korea University Sejong Campus Sees Success in Student and Faculty Startup Support

Korea University Sejong Campus is supporting entrepreneurship among students and faculty on campus, achieving tangible results.

Provided by Korea University Sejong Campus

According to the university on the 12th, the youth ESG startup ‘N.A.W.A’ recently participated in the ‘University Startup World Cup’ hosted by Denmark’s Venture Cup and was the only Korean team to advance to the finals in the ‘Green (environment)’ category.

In the finals to be held next month, startup teams from world-renowned universities such as Harvard University, Imperial College, University of Hong Kong, Technical University of Denmark, and University College London will compete.

N.A.W.A originally started as a startup club at Korea University Sejong Campus and developed a recyclable smart trash bin called ‘Cupkkiri’ with the support of the university.

In particular, CEO Youngho Seo, who leads N.A.W.A, achieved remarkable results during his university years with the university’s support, winning 15 contests, filing 2 domestic patents, 5 trademarks, and 1 overseas patent.

There were also notable achievements in entrepreneurship support for faculty members. Startups MetaImmunTech Co., Ltd. and KAD Co., Ltd. are representative cases.

MetaImmunTech is a bio-medical startup founded by two faculty members of Korea University Sejong Campus. In June, they succeeded in developing a prototype of the in vitro diagnostic platform ‘Cellytics-NK’ and are preparing for commercialization.

This platform is noteworthy for reducing the natural killer cell (NK) activity test, which was previously limited to using expensive, large, and specialized analytical equipment and took more than 24 hours, to within 2 hours.

KAD, a faculty startup, possesses innovative technology in infectious disease management and quarantine. They developed efficient infectious disease management technology by providing Korea’s first wastewater-based infectious disease management service and a proactive solution linking UV-LED sterilization technology for fluids such as air and water.

The achievements of these student and faculty startups are the results obtained with the university’s support. Previously, the Korea University Sejong Startup Support Center has been operating 671 companies and projects worth 51.1 billion KRW since 2020, providing entrepreneurship support programs.

Young Kim, Vice President of Korea University Sejong Campus, said, “Our university is building a systematic system and infrastructure to support the startup lifecycle in Sejong City,” adding, “We will ensure that Korea University Sejong Campus establishes itself as a forward base for regional startups and plays a role in nurturing numerous entrepreneurial talents.”