Daejeon City Opens 'Startup KAIST Global Studio'

Discovering and Nurturing Startups for Overseas Expansion

The event was attended by Lee Jang-woo, Mayor of Daejeon; Lee Kwang-hyung, President of KAIST; Bae Hyun-min, Director of KAIST Startup Institute; Jung Tae-hee, Chairman of Daejeon Chamber of Commerce and Industry; and Seo Cheol-mo, Mayor of Seo-gu. / Daejeon City

Daejeon City held an opening ceremony on the afternoon of the 1st for the ‘Startup KAIST Global Studio’ startup space established in the former Korea Racing Authority building in Wolpyeong-dong, Seo-gu.

The KAIST startup space spans approximately 370 pyeong and includes 60 workstations for resident companies, meeting rooms, seminar rooms, and rest areas.

The city is operating ‘5 Major Regional Startup Towns’ and plans to expand the first town, the Startup Park in Gung-dong, Yuseong-gu, to Wolpyeong-dong, Seo-gu, creating a technology startup ecosystem that connects ‘startup-growth-globalization.’ Wolpyeong-dong will be developed as the 5th Startup Town, the ‘Global Innovation Startup Hub.’

The operating organization of the Global Studio, ‘KAIST Startup Institute,’ will utilize KAIST’s technology and research infrastructure to discover and nurture competitive startups capable of entering overseas markets and help them grow into global innovation leaders.

Selected companies will receive support for mass production of prototypes, overseas crowdfunding and marketing, participation in international tech company exhibitions, community and networking opportunities.

KAIST President Lee Kwang-hyung said, “The opening of Startup KAIST Global Studio will be an important opportunity to innovate the regional and national startup ecosystem through cooperation between KAIST and Daejeon and to actively enter the global market. In the mid to long term, I hope KAIST and Daejeon will establish themselves together as a new cradle for global market entry.”

Daejeon Mayor Lee Jang-woo emphasized, “Daejeon City, with world-class scientific and technological capabilities such as Daedeok Innopolis and KAIST, ranks first in growth rate of technology-based startup companies outside the metropolitan area. The future leadership depends on who possesses more new technology capabilities, so we will actively cooperate to ensure KAIST’s excellent research and technology are linked to startups and commercialization.”