Second Announcement of SME Innovation Voucher Support Project

190 Billion KRW Support for Over 800 High-Growth Potential Regional SMEs

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced on the 3rd that it will conduct the second announcement for 2025 of the ‘SME Innovation Voucher Support Project.’

The Innovation Voucher Project is designed to strengthen the competitiveness of manufacturing SMEs by providing customized services such as consulting, technical support, and marketing to enhance SMEs' innovation capabilities and improve market competitiveness.

This second announcement aims to recruit demand companies for the ‘Regional Growth Voucher’ type among the five types of the Innovation Voucher Project. Customized vouchers will be provided to companies participating in the Legend50+ Project and traditional local manufacturers to promote innovation and growth.

The regional specialized project-linked voucher supports companies participating in the Ministry of SMEs and Startups’ representative regional SME growth model, the ‘Legend50+ Project,’ with a budget of 17 billion KRW this year. This is an increase of 3 billion KRW from last year’s 14 billion KRW, reflecting the high local interest and response, as the number of Legend50+ projects increased from the original 21 to 37, and the number of participating companies grew by about 500. Companies participating in the Legend50+ Project can receive support quickly through simplified procedures such as exemption from on-site evaluations and can utilize customized services including consulting, technical support, and marketing.

The regional autonomous voucher aims to restore and strengthen the competitiveness of traditional local manufacturing or regional key industries, with about 2 billion KRW in support planned this year based on programs planned by local SMEs and Startups offices. In particular, this year, each local office is exploring ways to cooperate with glocal universities to help resolve manpower shortages in local SMEs, which is expected to contribute not only to short-term problem-solving but also to the long-term strengthening of the industrial base.

Kim Woo-jung, Director of Regional Enterprise Policy, said, “We have made significant reforms to improve the quality of services and ensure transparent and systematic project management for the Innovation Voucher Project this year,” adding, “We will actively support SMEs so that they can effectively address key tasks such as new technology development, brand building, and export increase through the Innovation Voucher Project.”