Ministry of SMEs and Startups Partners with L'Or?al to Foster Digital and Innovative Technology Startups

Operation of the Global Corporate Collaboration 'Big Bang' Program

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced that starting from the 12th, it will recruit digital and innovative technology startups wishing to participate in the global corporate collaboration 'Big Bang' program with the L'Or?al Group.

Since signing an agreement in June last year to support startups in the beauty tech sector, the Ministry and the L'Or?al Group have continued their partnership by jointly hosting the 'L'Or?al Open Innovation Contest.' From this year, they plan to actively nurture startups in the digital and innovative technology fields applicable to beauty through the global corporate collaboration program.

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The global corporate collaboration program is a representative public-private partnership startup support project initiated by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups in 2019. This year, it has selected and supported 305 promising startups in collaboration with 11 global companies including Google and OpenAI. With the addition of the L'Or?al Group, the total number of global companies partnering with the Ministry to foster domestic startups will reach 12.

L'Or?al Korea plans to pilot the 'Big Bang' program in collaboration with the Ministry from the second half of this year to support startups possessing digital and innovative technologies. This program aims to discover and nurture startups with innovative technologies applicable to the beauty sector. Selected companies will receive mentoring, consulting, marketing, and networking support from L'Or?al, as well as opportunities to collaborate with L'Or?al-related teams. Additionally, participating companies can, through evaluation, join the next year's global corporate collaboration program and receive up to 200 million KRW in commercialization funds and specialized program support from the Ministry.

Meanwhile, on the 11th, Lim Jeong-wook, Director of the Startup Venture Innovation Office at the Ministry, held a meeting with Samuel Dury Retail, CEO of L'Or?al Korea, to discuss the operational direction of the 'Big Bang' program. Director Lim stated, “As domestic beauty startups are leading the global K-Beauty wave, we expect synergy to be created through collaboration between the world-renowned beauty company L'Or?al Group and Korean startups.”