Ministry of SMEs and Startups Rebrands DIPS and Advances Program Development

Development of New Brand Identity, Sub-Slogans, and Plaque Designs
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The government is rebranding its flagship startup support initiative, the “DIPS 1000+ Project” (DIPS 1000+), and moving to further advance the program. The plan is to enhance the program’s completeness by redefining its branding in line with this year’s restructuring and expansion of support areas.

According to the Ministry of SMEs and Startups on January 8, the Korea Startup Promotion Agency recently simplified the project’s name from “DIPS 1000+” to simply “DIPS” and has begun developing a new brand identity (BI). In addition, related efforts are underway, including the creation of sub-slogans for each detailed program and the design of plaques to be provided to selected companies.

DIPS is recognized as one of the Korea Startup Promotion Agency’s leading startup support programs, alongside the public-private TIPS (Tech Incubator Program for Startup Korea). Its core goal is to discover and support deep-tech startups that can lead the global market based on technological superiority. Since 2023, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups and the Korea Startup Promotion Agency have fostered deep-tech startups in ten next-generation industries, such as system semiconductors, through DIPS. Starting this year, the support areas will be expanded and reorganized to cover “six strategic industries and twelve next-generation industries,” reflecting the government’s six strategic industries and fifteen major super-innovation economic projects.

Given these changes in the program’s structure, it was determined internally that the existing brand system could no longer adequately encompass the expanded scope and policy messaging. This assessment is said to have driven the rebranding initiative. Although the DIPS 1000+ BI is still being used for recognition and promotional purposes, the restructuring of the program’s framework has made it necessary to redefine the brand.

There is also an intention to unify the names of the flagship support programs as TIPS and DIPS. In this process, the number “1000” was removed from the original name. While the project was initially launched with the goal of fostering “over 1,000 super-gap startups,” concerns arose that the number could be perceived as a cap as the program matured. The change reflects a commitment to continually expand the pool of supported startups in the future. In addition, to promote the program in major overseas startup markets, the brand will be produced in Korean, English, and Chinese, and operational guidelines will be prepared. Through this rebranding, the Korea Startup Promotion Agency expects to secure brand consistency and enhance global recognition, thereby increasing policy effectiveness.

As of 2025, the Korea Startup Promotion Agency selected and supported a total of 604 super-gap startups. By year, the breakdown is: 175 in 2023, 232 in 2024, and 197 in 2025. During this process, three global unicorns, including FuriosaAI, emerged, and fourteen companies, such as Nota, were listed on KOSDAQ. Thirteen companies attracted a total of 6.77 billion won in new investment. The Korea Startup Promotion Agency has been recruiting new companies since the end of last year and plans to select and announce 200 companies as early as the end of March.