The Ministry of SMEs and Startups said on the 16th that it held the "Chungcheong region Welcome to TIPS" event at Daejeon TIPS Town.
TIPS is a public-private partnership startup support system in which, when a private operator selects and invests in startup companies by leveraging its expertise and capabilities, the government provides linked support such as research and development (R&D) and startup commercialization funds.
To date, more than 3,700 startup companies have participated and achieved results such as securing more than 17 trillion won in follow-on investments, establishing itself as Korea's representative startup support program.
The event brought together about 100 promising technology startups from the Chungcheong region hoping to participate in TIPS and TIPS operators for direct exchanges, and was prepared to spread investment opportunities concentrated in the Seoul metropolitan area to the regions.
On the day, promising startups from the Chungcheong region held an investment briefing for TIPS operators, and prize money was awarded to outstanding companies selected through on-site evaluations. The selected outstanding companies are expected to take the unified finals stage at the end of the year and hold another investment briefing in front of investment firms nationwide.
In addition, various exchange programs followed, including an operator briefing in which TIPS operators introduced key investment fields and strategies, investment-attraction networking between companies hoping to participate in TIPS and operators, and mentoring by veteran TIPS companies.
Lim Jeong-uk, director general of the Startup Venture Innovation Office at the ministry, said, "I hope today's meeting with TIPS operators served as a stepping-stone for greater leaps for startups in the Chungcheong region," adding, "We will sequentially hold Welcome to TIPS by region to spread the startup fervor across the country."