Gyeonggi Province Supports Pre-startup Founders and Companies in Culture Technology Commercialization with Up to 35 Million Won in Production Subsidies

[Suwon Ilbo=Park No-hun, Reporter] Gyeonggi Province and the Gyeonggi Contents Promotion Agency are recruiting recipients for the '2021 Culture Technology Commercialization Support' program, which will provide up to 35 million won in project funding to pre-startup founders and companies that possess prototype content and production technology in the Culture Technology field through May 22.

Culture Technology refers to the comprehensive technology for developing, producing, distributing, and providing services for content that combines cultural industries and technology with knowledge and sensibility from art, design, and humanities and social sciences.

Examples include artificial intelligence (AI) paintings trained on the painting styles of renowned historical artists and content distribution featuring restored voices of historical singers.

The province plans to support pre-startup founders and companies within the province that are in the refinement stage and possess prototypes and production technology for content, products, and services applicable to high-demand fields such as advertising, content solutions, performances, design, exhibitions, and education within the culture technology industry sector.

The province will select a total of 15 companies, paying each company 20 million won in the first round of support, and then, through an interim evaluation, will provide differentiated support of 5 to 15 million won in the second round of funding. Selected excellent companies will also receive support for business development programs including expert consultation and mentoring as well as promotional and marketing assistance.

Selected pre-startup founders must establish a business within Gyeonggi Province within one month after signing an agreement, and existing companies not currently located in the province must relocate their headquarters or branch office address to Gyeonggi Province within the same period.

Information on application methods and required documents for the '2021 Culture Technology Commercialization Support' can be found on the Gyeonggi Contents Promotion Agency website (www.gcon.or.kr), and applications should be submitted by email (chanhee@gcon.or.kr) by 5 p.m. on May 22.

Representative cases from companies that participated in the previous year's Culture Technology Commercialization Support include the Hangeul Workshop's service that expresses Hangul as colors and graphic images by analyzing the principles of Hunminjeongeum, and ㈜Naibi's online album service 'Pleem,' which applies QR codes to physical albums (CDs) to allow viewing on smartphones.