Recruitment of Companies Participating in the 'BIRD Program' Based on Kibo and Public-Private Matching Capital

A Catalyst for Technology Commercialization
of Small and Medium Venture Enterprises

The Korea Technology Finance Corporation (KOTEC) announced on the 21st that it will implement the 'BIRD (Bridge for Innovative R&D) Program,' a public-private matching capital-based initiative supporting the entire research and development (R&D) cycle of small and medium-sized venture enterprises, in collaboration with the Small and Medium Business Technology Information Promotion Agency (SMBA).

The BIRD program is an excellent innovation support model by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups that continuously provides step-by-step R&D funding to generate tangible results and increase success rates. Since introducing this program in 2023, KOTEC, through cooperation with SMBA, has supported a total of 136 companies until last year, providing guarantees worth 27.2 billion KRW, grants of 23.4 billion KRW, and guarantee-linked investments of 2 billion KRW.

The two organizations support the entire R&D cycle of small and medium-sized ventures by dividing the program into three stages to revitalize a private-led innovative technology ecosystem: ▲ Stage 1 (Pre-R&D) R&D planning funds with a 200 million KRW guarantee provided by KOTEC ▲ Stage 2 (R&D) R&D execution funds with grants up to 500 million KRW provided by SMBA ▲ Stage 3 (Post-R&D) R&D commercialization funds with guarantees up to 3 billion KRW provided by KOTEC.

The eligible companies are ▲ those with recent sales of 2 billion KRW or more ▲ companies with a KOTEC technology business evaluation rating of ‘BB’ or higher. For the technology business evaluation rating, eligibility is confirmed during the final evaluation of Stage 1.

Kim Jong-ho, Chairman of KOTEC, stated, “The BIRD program is a performance-driven R&D support system based on public-private matching capital that assists small enterprises possessing national strategic technologies throughout the entire process from research and development to commercialization.” He added, “KOTEC will continue to expand cooperation with related organizations to promote the successful commercialization of innovative technologies and contribute to revitalizing a private-led technology commercialization ecosystem.”