When Private Investors Invest in Startups, Gyeonggi Province Backs Commercialization Funding

[Suwon Ilbo=Park No-hun Reporter] Gyeonggi Province announced on the 29th that it will launch the "Gyeonggi Province Private Investment-Linked Technology Startup Support Project" starting this year to overcome the limitations of public-led uniform startup support projects and establish a competitive private-led startup ecosystem.

The province has pursued various startup support policies thus far, but the method of distributing public resources such as funding and startup spaces in a one-directional manner to numerous companies has made it difficult to take strategic and efficient approaches to rapidly changing technology and business environments.

In response, the province plans to implement the "Private Investment-Linked Technology Startup Support Project," which makes extensive use of diverse capabilities in the private sector such as funding, incubation, and expertise, to create a more flexible and proactive startup ecosystem. This approach marks the first time a local government in Korea has adopted this method.

The project works as follows: private investors such as accelerators carefully select promising startups within the province with high growth potential and engage in investment and incubation, while Gyeonggi Province supports them by matching startup spaces and commercialization funding.

The support fields consist of two programs: ①Private Investment-Linked type and ②Gyeonggi Startup Platform-Linked type.

First, the "Private Investment-Linked" type involves private investment and incubation specialist operators discovering promising startups and investing 60 million won or more, after which Gyeonggi Province provides up to 350 million won in commercialization funding over two years.

The support scale covers 10 startups within the province in the ICT (information and communications, knowledge services, fintech, etc.) or technology convergence manufacturing sectors.

The plan is to first select 5 specialist operators, then select 10 startups from among those invested by each operator through review for support. Operating companies wishing to participate can submit documents such as proposals from June 29 to July 17 to the Startup Support Team at the Gyeonggi Economic Science and Innovation Promotion Agency (107 Gwanggyo-ro, Yeongtong-gu, Suwon) via mail or in-person submission.

The "Gyeonggi Startup Platform-Linked" type involves Gyeonggi Province supporting up to 30 million won in commercialization funding for one year when investments are concluded between private investors and startups registered as members of the Gyeonggi Startup Platform (www.gsp.or.kr), an online startup platform operated by the province.

The support scale covers 10 technology-based startups within the province. Unlike the private investment-linked type, applications and support are conducted continuously through the Gyeonggi Startup Platform (www.gsp.or.kr).

A Gyeonggi Province official said, "This is a project aimed at proactively responding to rapidly changing business environments after the Fourth Industrial Revolution and post-COVID era, and fostering market (private)-driven technological innovation and future growth engines," and added, "It is expected to serve as an opportunity for promising startups in strategic technologies, materials, parts, equipment, and ICT-based convergence to grow actively."

For more information about the project, those interested can contact the Startup Support Team at the Gyeonggi Economic Science and Innovation Promotion Agency (031-259-6481) for the private investment-linked type, or the Startup Promotion Task Force Team (031-8039-7104) for the Gyeonggi Startup Platform-linked type.