Support for Promising Startups' Global Expansion through Collaboration between the Ministry of SMEs and Startups and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Joint Briefing Session for Ministry of SMEs and Startups - Ministry of Foreign Affairs Collaborative Project

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on the 6th that they will jointly hold an explanatory session on the TIPS-CTS linked project and the Global TIPS project to support the global expansion of small and venture businesses.

TIPS is a project in which operators selected by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups utilize private expertise and capabilities to select startup companies, and the government provides linked support such as technology development (R&D) and startup commercialization funds. As a representative startup support project of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, more than 2,700 startups supported so far have attracted follow-up investments totaling about 13 trillion KRW. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ CTS is a support project that applies entrepreneurs’ innovative ideas and technologies to Official Development Assistance (ODA) to solve development cooperation challenges.

The explanatory session to be held on the 9th is organized to provide guidance on the linked project between TIPS and CTS. It is structured to support local demonstration and commercialization funds through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ CTS linked project for excellent companies that have successfully graduated from TIPS and won CES Innovation Awards and wish to enter developing countries. After conducting a pilot project this year, a new track will be established within CTS from 2025 to expand support. The Ministry of SMEs and Startups and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs expect that this linked project will serve as a foothold for the global expansion of small and venture businesses.

Following the TIPS-CTS linked project explanatory session, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups will also hold an explanatory session on the ‘Global TIPS’ project, which expands the strengths of TIPS?combining private pre-investment and government linked support?into the global arena. Global TIPS is a project that supports overseas expansion of promising technology startup companies by providing up to 600 million KRW in overseas expansion funds to startups that have been verified for technology and marketability by overseas investors (VCs) and have received investments above a certain scale. Through this pilot project, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups will select about 20 promising startup companies. Selected companies will be provided with specialized global expansion services consisting of pre-entry preparation, scale-up, and partnership linkage for each country through Korea Venture Investment Corp., a specialized institution with overseas networks and expertise.

Oh Young-joo, Minister of SMEs and Startups, said, “Considering the borderless digital economy era and limited domestic market, overseas expansion of startups is not an option but a necessity,” adding, “We hope that the TIPS-CTS linked project and the Global TIPS project will activate the global expansion of excellent small and venture businesses, and we will further expand inter-ministerial cooperation to support promising startups’ global expansion.”