The recruitment of companies interested in participating in the Pre-Tips program, which identifies startup teams with high growth potential, fosters them as prospective TIPS startups, and promotes angel investment to support the revitalization of the local startup ecosystem, has begun.

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced on the 27th that it will be recruiting startups wishing to participate in the '2023 Pre-TIPS Program' until the 24th of next month.

Free Tips is a program introduced to discover and support excellent early-stage startups outside the metropolitan area. It provides up to KRW 100 million in startup commercialization funds to startups that have been in business for less than three years and have attracted more than KRW 10 million in investment from the private sector.

Launched in 2018, Freetips has supported a total of 132 companies by 2021, creating 470 new jobs and attracting KRW 24.7 billion in new domestic and international investment, serving as a stepping stone for early-stage startups to grow to the next level.

In particular, Freetips is contributing to the revitalization of the local startup ecosystem by allocating more than 60% of its annual support to startups outside the metropolitan area and selecting and supporting approximately 100 local startups by 2022.

This year, we plan to select and support 43 Free Tips companies, and as the recruitment scale expands, we expect that more regional startups will have the opportunity to participate.

Currently, in order to expand the link between Free Tips and TIPS, companies participating in Free Tips are being given extra points when applying for TIPS, and investments raised at the time of participation in Free Tips are also being recognized as being included in the scope of investment raised from the operator, which is a prerequisite for participation in TIPS.

This year, we are connecting with Tips To further strengthen this, we plan to establish a 'Free Tips IR' in the 'Tips Salon', a meeting place for local Tips companies and investors, and hold a 'Free Tips Meetup Day' to support networking between Free Tips companies, excellent Tips companies, and Tips operators.

Minister Lee Young said, “Pretips is a great opportunity for capable early-stage startups to enter the TIPS program,” and added, “I hope that many companies will grow into global unicorn companies by linking Pretips with Posttips in the future.”