K-Global Startup Contest Celebrates 10th Anniversary
| Startup discovery, founding, and commercialization support program
Accelerating the discovery of promising startups leading the Fourth Industrial Revolution

On the 27th, the Ministry of Science and ICT held a launch ceremony for the selected teams of the '2019 K-Global Startup Contest' at the Enterprise Support Hub in Pangyo 2nd Techno Valley, Seongnam, Gyeonggi-do.

The K-Global Startup Contest is a startup support program that discovers startups with innovative ideas in information and communication technology (ICT) and specialized technology fields and supports their establishment and commercialization.

This event was held for the 33 teams finally selected through the recruitment of participants for the startup competition that closed last June, with the aim of discovering collaboration agendas through interaction with mentors and partner companies and guidance on detailed support.

Starting with the launch ceremony, the 33 selected teams will receive support for the next five months, including infrastructure such as collaborative spaces and cloud services necessary for startup and service development, 1:1 mentoring from startup experts, legal consultation through an MOU between the Ministry of Science and ICT and the Korean Bar Association, seminars and networking by field, opportunities to benchmark advanced technologies, and promotion.

Each team commercializes creative startup ideas during the support period, and at the end of the year, If selected as an outstanding startup at the 'K-Global Startup Contest Final Pitching Competition,' you will receive 100 million won for the Grand Prize, 50 million won for the Top Excellence Prize, 30 million won for the Excellence Prize, and 10 million won for the Encouragement Prize.

The launch ceremony on this day was attended by about 50 people, including 33 selected teams, officials from related organizations (Naver, Korea Management Association), the Ministry of Science and ICT, and the National Information Society Agency (NIPA).

After going through a sequence of events including an introduction to various support programs and details, a signing ceremony, and networking among the selected teams, the full-scale launch of the K-Global Startup Contest was announced.

Yong Hong-taek, Director General of Information and Communication Industry Policy at the Ministry of Science and ICT, stated, “Through today’s launch ceremony, I hope that prospective entrepreneurs and early-stage startups in the ICT sector will further develop their diverse and innovative ideas and technologies to grow into future unicorn companies that will lead the second venture boom.”

Meanwhile, the K-Global Startup Contest, which marks its 10th anniversary this year, has supported a total of 297 teams, resulting in 123 teams founding businesses and 235 ideas being commercialized.