Opening of Private Financial Institution Technology Evaluation Data
Activation of Technology Finance
The open technology evaluation platform ‘K-TOP’ (Korea - Technology rating Open Platform) service, developed through artificial neural network learning and analysis of accumulated big data on technology evaluation and patents of small and medium-sized venture companies, is set to launch. This opening of the technology evaluation infrastructure is a follow-up measure to the 'Small Business Leap Strategy' announced by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, allowing public institutions supporting small businesses, commercial banks, and venture investment institutions that have signed the ‘K-TOP Joint Utilization Agreement’ to utilize K-TOP when evaluating small business technologies.
The Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced on the 4th that the ‘K-TOP’ service features an AI-based technology evaluation model that enables easy grading and scoring of a company’s technological capabilities. K-TOP also provides user-friendly services such as automatic collection of some evaluation input information like financial and patent data, company self-diagnosis, and viewing and transmission of evaluation results.
To systematically introduce and expand K-TOP, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups established an implementation and activation plan for K-TOP together with public institutions supporting small businesses in fields such as research and development (R&D) and startups prior to the pilot service launch. Major public institutions such as the Korea Technology Finance Corporation, Small and Medium Business Technology Information Promotion Agency, and Korea Institute of Startup & Entrepreneurship Development plan to utilize the evaluation model based on approximately 150,000 technology evaluation data and 8 million patent information records for company evaluation, support effect analysis, and system improvement. By applying K-TOP according to the characteristics of individual support projects?such as setting K-TOP evaluation results as minimum requirements for participation or adopting them as project performance indicators?the effectiveness of support projects will be enhanced, and the budget and manpower required for selecting appropriate supported companies and post-management will be optimized.
Additionally, there are plans to share K-TOP evaluation results so that private financial institutions such as commercial banks and venture capitalists (VCs) can use them to discover new investment targets. The evaluation results of excellent companies with K-TOP grades and scores above a certain level will be shared with financial institutions to actively support these companies in attracting investment. Furthermore, a technology finance program that links K-TOP with commercial bank platforms to enable one-stop processing of guarantees by the Korea Technology Finance Corporation and bank loan procedures is scheduled to begin development in 2025.
The Ministry of SMEs and Startups plans to expand the adoption of K-TOP to small business support projects of related ministries such as the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, Ministry of Science and ICT, and Ministry of Environment, and from the first half of 2025, fully open K-TOP to all small businesses beyond the partner institutions, thereby solidifying the foundation for technology evaluation of small and venture companies through public-private cooperation. Kim Jeong-ju, Director of Small Business Strategy Planning at the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, stated, “Through AI-based K-TOP, we will selectively support companies with high growth potential to improve the effectiveness of government support projects, and it is expected to be of great help to private financial institutions and venture capitalists, who face difficulties in technology evaluation and thus have limitations in implementing technology finance.”
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