The Global Startup Academy is a program run by the Korea SMEs and Startups Agency (KOSME) to support startup corporations with global expansion and growth for successful overseas entry. It was first launched in 2020, and last year the program was completely overhauled to establish five stages: preliminary diagnosis, entry preparation, investment attraction, local entry, and policy linkage. It provides office space such as offices and conference rooms and supports up to 150 million won in commercialization funds.
Among corporations established within seven years that hope to expand overseas, those may apply to the Global Startup Academy. After a document screening that checks business capabilities, applicants who pass in-depth evaluations such as English presentations are selected as final successful candidates and are allocated project funds. This year, 60 corporations were selected. Founders aged 39 account for 83.3%. Even after admission, those with poor evaluations must withdraw.
Not only can businesses be advanced through dedicated mentoring, but opportunities are also provided to collaborate with domestic and overseas startups as well as to connect with investors such as venture capital (VC) and accelerators (AC). Participants can study successful overseas fundraising cases and share difficulties with predecessors who have already walked the startup path to find clues to long-standing problems.
Twenty-one Global Business Centers (GBC) have been opened around the world to provide not only space but also advice in specialized fields such as marketing, law, and accounting to promising small and medium venture corporations seeking to expand overseas. Administrative services are also provided for early local settlement. Six Korea Startup Centers have also been established in major countries such as the United States, Japan, and France. They support local commercialization, investment attraction, and network linkage.
Based on this support system, the Global Startup Academy has achieved meaningful results over the past five years. Including this year, 297 corporations have graduated, with sales of about 165.2 billion won and 2,161 jobs created. Forty-four corporations have expanded overseas, with exports totaling 16 billion won. These are outcomes that back the global leap of domestic startup corporations.
Some corporations with names you may have heard at least once also went through the Global Startup Academy. One of them is t'order, an operator of an unmanned ordering platform that enables ordering and payment using tablet PCs. t'order entered as part of the first cohort of the Global Startup Academy and grew last year into a corporation with 57 billion won in sales and 183 employees. In 2023, it was selected as a preliminary unicorn by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, and to date it has attracted about 47.3 billion won in investment.
Auto& Incorporation, an automotive accessories development and distribution corporation established in 2008 as an in-house venture at Hyundai Motor, also went through the Youth Startup Academy and was listed on KOSDAQ. It has established itself as a corporation with 50 billion won in sales and more than 200 employees.
The Global Startup Academy is not a model that works only in Korea. It is drawing strong interest overseas as well. Key elements of the Global Startup Academy model have been transferred to other countries such as Uganda and Colombia, and Vietnam is benchmarking it in its own policy.
Cho Han-gyo, managing director for talent development at KOSME, said, "The Global Startup Academy is a structure in which young people employ young people," and added, "We select those equipped with global capabilities to introduce corporations to foreign investors, provide 150 million won for one year, and the results have come from close operations such as mentoring."
Meanwhile, KOSME also links corporations to policy through the Global Startup Academy. It supports overseas expansion through programs such as export vouchers, online export support projects, and Global Business Centers (GBC). A total of 86 policy funds, including startup infrastructure support funds, amounting to about 12.5 billion won, are provided in linkage.