300 Billion Won to Fuel AI Independence to Be Injected in Second Half of Year

Next Unicorn Project Launched
Spotlight on Tangible Achievements of Vertical AI Companies

The government will inject policy funds totaling 300 billion won to support the growth of artificial intelligence (AI) startups. Following the recent passage of the second supplementary budget by the National Assembly, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups will actively implement the "Next Unicorn Project" in the second half of the year, utilizing the large-scale additional investment in the Fund of Funds. The strategy is to identify AI companies with technological capabilities and growth potential at an early stage and provide intensive support for their scale-up and entry into global markets.

According to the Ministry of SMEs and Startups on July 14, among the 50 companies selected in May as "2025 Baby Unicorns," 24 were classified in the AI and big data sectors?nearly half. The Baby Unicorn program comprehensively evaluates promising startups based on sales performance, investment history, and technological competitiveness, and provides up to 300 million won in market development funds and up to 5 billion won in technology guarantees.

This initiative goes beyond simple startup support and also serves as a key implementation tool for the government's "Sovereign AI" strategy. The government has set the establishment of an industry-specific AI ecosystem centered on domestic startups as a major policy direction, with the goal of securing AI technology independently without relying on foreign sources. Accordingly, the unicorn nurturing program is naturally being focused on AI.

From 2020 to last year, the government selected a total of 300 companies as beneficiaries of the Baby Unicorn program, of which 212 attracted follow-up investments amounting to 2.5 trillion won. Among these, 13 companies have become preliminary unicorns, and 9 of them have been listed on KOSDAQ. The selected companies have seen their average sales increase by approximately 138% and employment by more than 24%.

Experts emphasize that, to realize the Sovereign AI strategy, fostering "vertical AI" tailored to industry-specific needs is more critical than developing general-purpose AI. They point out that, with global big tech companies already dominating general-purpose AI platforms, Korea?being a latecomer?must develop specialized, field-based models to secure competitiveness. Baek Kyunghoon, the former head of LG AI Research and current nominee for Minister of Science and ICT, also stated, "While we must build Sovereign AI that meets global standards, it is especially important to develop vertical AI models specialized for each industry sector."

Among the 24 AI companies selected as Baby Unicorns this year, several are aligned with this direction. Notable examples include Wort Intelligence, which refines and analyzes vast patent information using generative AI; Bizdata, which automates water treatment processes with AI; and NextPayments, a retail solutions company supporting offline store operations.

In particular, Wort Intelligence, the only company specializing in technical data AI to be selected, recorded a net profit last year, demonstrating both profitability and technological strength. The company is also collaborating with LG AI Research on a project to train the large-scale AI model "EXAONE" with patent data. In addition to working with major domestic conglomerates, Wort Intelligence is being recognized for its technological capabilities in overseas markets such as Japan and Taiwan.