"Government-Funded Institutes Must Also Launch Unicorns"... Deep Tech Startup Demo Day Heats Up

Companies Discovered by NST and KST Participate
Grand Prize Awarded to SpaceXion, Founded by Researchers from the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute and Korea Institute of Fusion Energy

The National Research Council of Science & Technology (Chairman Kim Youngsik) announced on September 9 that it held the "2025 Deep Tech Planning Startup Demo Day" at Daejeon Tipstown and selected outstanding preliminary startup teams.

Demo Day is an event where startups present their services or products to investors or participants for the purpose of attracting investment. It serves as an opportunity to review the business plans and directions of aspiring entrepreneurs and to gauge potential investment interest in advance.

At this Demo Day, 17 preliminary startup teams based on deep tech, discovered and nurtured by the National Research Council of Science & Technology and Korea Science & Technology Holdings, participated.

Among the participating teams, SpaceXion (Dr. Chae Kilbyung from the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute and Dr. Park Min from the Korea Institute of Fusion Energy) won the grand prize for their ultra-light ion propulsion system based on solid fuel for microsatellites. They will receive commercialization funding of up to 100 million won through the National Research Council of Science & Technology's startup support program, as well as connections to professional public technology commercialization accelerators, startup space, direct investment of over 200 million won in the future, and linkage to the Tech Incubator Program for Startup Korea (TIPS).

Park Hoyoung, Head of the Technology Commercialization Promotion Division at the National Research Council of Science & Technology, stated, "This event will serve as the starting point for deep tech 'unicorn companies' originating from government-funded research institutes. We will continue to support proof of concept (PoC) and scaling up after startup by collaborating with various innovation players in the startup ecosystem, ultimately realizing a complete R&D cycle."

The National Research Council of Science & Technology and Korea Science & Technology Holdings have been collaborating since 2024 to discover, nurture, and support preliminary startup teams through a jointly planned and operated program to vitalize deep tech startups originating from government-funded research institutes.