"Over 80 VCs and Major Corporations Join Forces"
Held Regularly Every Fourth Week... Startups Selected Through Open Applications
Startup growth partner D.CAMP announced on January 19 that it has released the annual lineup for this year's D.CAMP Office Hour and will strengthen its role as a growth platform connecting startups with expert mentors. Office Hour is a professional mentoring program that has been held over 1,000 times since 2013.
This year, Office Hour will be divided into two sectors: venture investment and business collaboration, with a focus on facilitating one-on-one customized meetings between startups and investors or corporations.
In the venture investment sector, D.CAMP plans to actively leverage its fund network and management resources, totaling 182.1 billion won, which it has directly contributed to and established. Fund managers will participate as Office Hour mentors to provide support that goes beyond initial diagnosis to include detailed investment review and follow-up discussions.
Notably, more than 40 major domestic and international venture capital firms (VCs), including D.CAMP’s affiliated fund managers, will participate. Starting with January’s Office Hour, which features Shinhan Venture Investment and Kakao Ventures, large-scale fund managers such as IMM Investment, Base Ventures, L&S Venture Capital, Laguna Investment, and DG Daiwa Ventures will join sequentially.
Through this collaborative structure, investors aim to identify promising startups early, share candid assessments of initial business strategies, and provide unfiltered perspectives on the investment market to support startup growth.
Park Youngho, CEO of Laguna Investment and a mentor in Office Hour, stated, "There have been many cases where ongoing interaction with teams met through Office Hour has led to actual investments. It is a meaningful touchpoint to meet high-potential startups at an early stage." A startup CEO who raised over 1 billion won through last year's Office Hour also emphasized, "It was a major turning point because, rather than a simple investor relations (IR) session, institutional investors genuinely considered directions for business improvement together."
In addition, the business collaboration sector will include not only large and mid-sized companies operating their own open innovation programs or participating in government-linked projects, but also local governments and government agencies running research and development (R&D) and demonstration projects as mentors seeking collaboration with startups. More than 40 partners, including NVIDIA, IBK Industrial Bank of Korea, Lotte Ventures, GS Retail, the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the Public Procurement Service, and the National Police Agency, will participate. They will seek practical business expansion opportunities with startups, ranging from technology verification (PoC) to market development.
This year, Office Hour will be held every fourth week of the month, with the January session taking place for three days starting from the 19th at D.CAMP Seolleung. Eleven VC firms, including Shinhan Venture Investment and Kakao Ventures, and four major corporations, including Microsoft Korea, CJ ENM, LG Science Park, and Hoban Construction, will participate as mentors. Applications can be submitted during the designated period each month through the official D.CAMP website, and recruitment for the February Office Hour will take place for 15 days starting from the 26th.
Lim Saerom, Head of the D.CAMP Resource Team, said, "This year’s Office Hour is a collaborative platform for startup growth, united by D.CAMP’s fund network. We will support not only sharp investment perspectives but also the pursuit of real business opportunities with major corporations, so that these efforts lead to tangible results beyond simple mentoring."
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