The Gyeonggi Creative Economy Innovation Center (Director Shin Hyun-sam, hereinafter referred to as the ‘Gyeonggi Innovation Center’), the operating organization of the Pangyo Startup Zone, has achieved visible domestic and international achievements, with 40 companies located in the Pangyo Startup Zone successfully attracting investments worth approximately KRW 48 billion over the past year. It was announced on the 21st that it had achieved results.
The Pangyo Startup Zone is the largest startup support space in Korea, established by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups to intensively foster promising startups in new industries, and operated by the Gyeonggi Innovation Center and the Korea Institute of Startup and Entrepreneurship Promotion.
It is located on the 6th to 8th floors of the corporate support hub in Pangyo 2nd Techno Valley, and is home to approximately 120 start-ups, venture capital (VC), investment companies, cooperation and support organizations, etc.
Last year, in order to promote innovative growth and maximize performance of about 120 resident companies, the Gyeonggi Innovation Center conducted △Open Innovation Project (Innovation Linkage Support Project between Startups, Innovation Linkage Support Project between External Companies) △Startup Zone Various support projects were operated, including business △promotion and marketing support for resident companies, △investment IR (Startup 815), △global expansion marketing support, and networking (networking between resident companies, in-depth networking).
Last year, the total sales of tenant companies amounted to approximately 90 billion won, and the creation of new jobs amounted to about 570 people. The scale-up sector achieved great results, with 40 companies attracting investments worth approximately 48 billion won.
Notable investments and various awards also proved the value of companies located in the startup zone. AI voice synthesis startup Supertone (CEO Lee Gyo-gu) received an investment worth 4 billion won from Hive, the CES Innovation Award, and the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Award for contribution to the development of the content industry.
EVAR (CEO Hoon Lee), an electric vehicle charging solution startup, achieved excellent results in various fields, including receiving 5.5 billion won worth of investment from Hyundai Motor Company and DSC Investment, the CES Innovation Award, and the grand prize at the Lotte Engineering & Construction Technology Innovation Contest.
Global advancement was also remarkable. Recently, 14 companies incubating the Gyeonggi Innovation Center won the CES Innovation Award at CES 2022 held in Las Vegas, USA, and four of them, including Dothill, Macroact, Superton, and Eva, were companies located in the startup zone.
Hong Bo-ram, CEO of Dot Hill, which won three categories of CES 2022 Innovation Awards, said, “We were able to make up for our shortcomings through professional consulting and cases provided by the Gyeonggi Innovation Center.”
Open innovation programs were also active. First, the ‘Startup Linkage Project’, which aims to build an innovative business model through technology and service sharing between startups, supported commercialization matching for a total of 22 companies, advancement and launch of collaborative products, and a total of 12 commercialization collaboration projects.
Major domestic companies such as Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics, KT, LH, and Seoul Land participated in the commercialization linkage between startups and medium-sized and large companies, and business model advancement was achieved through a total of 14 commercialization collaboration projects.
The Startup Zone’s regular IR program ‘Startup 815’ drove investment from tenant companies. Startup 815 aims to build an IR and investment network for the innovative growth of promising startups. Last year, it was held eight times, including in sub/department/general, IT, and DNA.
Through this program, about 70 startups and 80 ACs, VCs, and other stakeholders participated, leading to an investment of 2.4 billion won in a total of 4 companies.
Various networking events were also held centered around the startup zone. Following thorough quarantine management guidelines, internal and external networking, such as bonsai and photo exhibitions, in-depth networking, and homecoming festa, were carried out both online and offline.
In particular, InDepth Networking attracted attention as a program in which experts in each field (finance, investment, law, human resources, etc.) present a vision for the problems facing tenant companies and provide support and follow-up networking. It was conducted for a total of 51 Gyeonggi Innovation Center childcare companies and was linked to in-depth mentoring and follow-up business support.
Shin Hyun-sam, Director of the Gyeonggi Innovation Center, said, “We are making every effort to solidify the Pangyo Startup Zone as a ‘startup hub where people, information, ideas, and investments gather.’” He added, “This year, we will also do our best to ensure rapid scale-up and global expansion of resident companies.” “I will do my best,” he said.
Source: Pangyo Techno Valley Official Newsroom
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