The Nation's Largest Global Startup Festival
Sharing Future Strategies for Carbon Neutrality in SMEs
The Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced on the 11th that it will operate various programs such as a promotional pavilion, conferences, reverse pitching, and large corporation-startup meetups under the theme of SIS (Sustainable Innovation led by Startups) at Korea's largest global startup festival, COMEUP 2024.
This SIS session was prepared to present sustainable solutions to the climate crisis through the innovative ideas and technological capabilities of deep-tech startups, and to promote Korea's climate tech industry to the world as a leader in achieving carbon neutrality.
Minister Oh Young-joo of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups is briefing on the main contents of 'ComeUp 2024' at the Global Startup Center in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, on the 25th. Photo by Yonhap News Agency, provided by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups
On the first day of the event, the 'Carbon Neutral Future Strategy Roundtable Performance Sharing Forum' was held to explore response measures for our SMEs through climate tech innovative technologies and voluntary carbon markets amid the expansion and strengthening of global carbon regulations.
The forum proceeded in the order of keynote lectures by leading climate tech companies and experts, policy proposals for fostering domestic innovative climate tech and activating voluntary carbon markets, and panel discussions.
First, Kim Gu-hwan, CEO of Gridwiz, an environmental and energy climate tech company listed on KOSDAQ this year, introduced the company's growth story and ESG management that the MZ generation should pay attention to. Han Sang-yeop, CEO of SoPoong Ventures, an impact investment firm, gave a special lecture on global climate tech trends, investment success strategies for Korea's climate tech, and the government's role.
Next, the results of the 'SME Venture Carbon Neutral Roundtable' discussions, which had been conducted intensively for about two months regarding policies to foster climate tech ventures and startups and activate voluntary carbon markets for SME participation, were announced. Along with this, a panel talk-style roundtable was held, chaired by Minister Oh Young-joo of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, with participation from climate tech experts.
On the second day of the event, SK Innovation, Hyundai Construction, and Korea Water Resources Corporation, which are collaborating with the Ministry of SMEs and Startups on startup cooperation, will sequentially introduce their areas of collaboration interest, excellent cases of cooperation with startups, and support contents such as investment, POC, and joint development provided during collaboration.
Additionally, at the climate tech promotional pavilion, three large corporations and public enterprises participating in reverse pitching and six climate tech startups that have achieved results through cooperation with them will jointly promote startups' innovative technologies and success cases. Among the startups participating in the pavilion, LD Carbon is a company that produces tire reinforcement materials (carbon black) and alternative crude oil (pyrolysis oil) by utilizing anaerobic pyrolysis technology on waste tires, which previously caused pollutants through simple landfill or incineration.
Furthermore, visitors could experience climate tech technologies that have achieved excellent results through open innovation, such as PiQuant, which collaborates with Hyundai Construction to create a spectroscopy-based air quality management IoT system, and iChemist, which builds an experiential water environment business platform using the metaverse in collaboration with Korea Water Resources Corporation.
Minister Oh said, “Climate tech is a key promising industry that can simultaneously achieve the goals of realizing carbon neutrality and entering the global market,” adding, “Taking 'COMEUP 2024' as an opportunity, we will expand policy support and cooperation opportunities so that many climate tech startups can gain global competitiveness through large corporation-startup collaboration and contribute to solving the climate crisis.”
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