Busan City Joins First Global Project 'SushiTech Tokyo'

Attending Japan's Largest Startup Conference on the 15th-16th

Only Korean Participant in 'City Pitch'... Startup Support and New Business Pitching

Busan Metropolitan City and Busan Technopark participated in the ‘2024 SusHiTech Tokyo’ held in Japan from May 15 to 16, where they scouted companies to participate in the Asia Startup Expo ‘FLY ASIA 2024’ and expanded their pool of investors, as well as created new opportunities for local companies to enter overseas markets and attract investment.

Visit to JETRO (Japan External Trade Organization).

‘SusHiTech’ is Japan’s largest large-scale startup conference.

This event saw the participation of the city, Busan Technopark, MarinaChain, and four promising Busan-based startups as part of the city’s delegation.

This attendance at SusHiTech marked the first project under the ‘Global Exchange and Investment Attraction Support’ initiative, a follow-up to the Asia Startup Expo ‘FLY ASIA’.

This project, launched for the first time this year, aims to support local companies’ global expansion and attract outstanding overseas companies to Busan by leveraging the international network established through ‘FLY ASIA’.

The four companies that participated in SusHiTech conducted more than 104 buyer consultations and over 38 investment consultations. In particular, MarinaChain signed an MOU with a Dutch company, and Elect received investment review interest from three Japanese corporate venture capital (CVC) firms. All participating companies attracted significant attention from global stakeholders, and investment attraction is expected to follow.

The four participating companies were Heroworks (hotel revenue management system), MarinaChain (marine-related web platform utilizing AI technology), TheFace (exhibition showcases), and Elect (electric excavators).

In February, the city pre-selected startups aiming to enter the Japanese market and attract investment, providing them with global competency training and tailored consulting for this event. These efforts contributed to achieving more meaningful results at the event.

Additionally, ‘SlashBSlash’, which has seen rapid growth since participating in last year’s SusHiTech, attended this event individually as an observer, concretizing plans to establish a subsidiary and negotiating investment with major Japanese CVCs, making investment attraction highly likely.

‘SlashBSlash’ (smartphone accessories), after participating in last year’s event, successfully entered the Japanese market through collaboration with a listed Japanese company, opening not only online stores but also offline stores in Tokyo and Osaka, achieving sales exceeding 2 billion KRW.

Notably, during the event, the city participated as a ‘City Pitch’ presenting city, introducing policies for ‘Busan, the Startup City of Asia’ and widely promoting the Asia Startup Expo ‘FLY ASIA 2024’.

Startup city representatives from around the world visited the ‘City Pitch’, and Busan was the only Korean city to participate.

City Pitch Busan City announcement scene.

‘City Pitch’ is a SusHiTech-linked event held at the Tokyo Innovation Base (TIB), Tokyo’s innovation hub. Government officials from startup cities worldwide gather to introduce their startup ecosystems and present participating startups.

At this event, the city showcased global startup support projects and promising startup pitches, receiving enthusiastic responses from international cities.

The city delegation also attended D.Camp’s ‘MokTalk’, building networks with key figures in Japan’s startup ecosystem, and visited the K-Startup Center Tokyo and Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) to explore the Japanese startup landscape and discuss overseas expansion strategies.

MokTalk is D.Camp’s locally tailored global community event, providing a forum to discuss challenges and concerns in overseas expansion. The city delegation also met with the Korea Credit Guarantee Fund Youth Startup Foundation to discuss cooperation between Busan and D.Camp for global expansion.

In the second half of the year, the city plans to continue supporting local companies’ global market entry and investment attraction in connection with ‘FLY ASIA’, preparing to participate in Vietnam’s ‘Startup Wheel’ (August) and Singapore’s ‘SWITCH’ (October).

Companies to be supported for entry into Vietnam were recruited in April and selected in early May, while recruitment for companies aiming to enter Singapore will begin at the end of May.

Kim Sungjo, Director of Financial Startup Policy for the city, stated, “Our city will actively support not only the establishment of networks with major cities in Asia’s startup ecosystem but also ensure that Busan’s startups achieve tangible business outcomes such as global market entry and investment attraction.”