The Asan Nanum Foundation said on the 12th (local time) that it opened MaruSF, a short-stay global community hub, in San Mateo County, California.
MaruSF is the third Start - Up support space the Asan Nanum Foundation has opened, following the startup incubators Maru180 and Maru360 built in Seoul's Yeoksam-dong in 2014 and 2021, and its first overseas facility.
Chair Yom Yun-mi of the Asan Nanum Foundation said establishing a Start - Up support facility in Silicon Valley is because it is the most fitting place for the foundation's core management goal this year of "frontier entrepreneurship."
Unlike Maru180 and Maru360, where Start - Ups move in directly, MaruSF serves as a hub where Start - Up executives and employees on business trips for overseas investment talks can stay for several weeks like a lodging and network with one another.
Honorary Chair Chung Mong-joon of the Asan Nanum Foundation, who attended the opening ceremony, said in his congratulatory remarks, "What turns the impossible into the possible is not capital or technology, but people who believe they can," and added, "Just as Chung Ju-yung, founder of Hyundai Group, rewrote the history of overseas expansion with the 20th century's largest Jubail Industrial Port project, I hope entrepreneurs will create new stories of challenge and growth at MaruSF."
Executive Director Chung Nam-yi, the eldest daughter of the honorary chair, emphasized that "in a time when AI centered in Silicon Valley is reshaping every industry, more founding teams need to target the global market from the early stages," and said MaruSF will serve as a bridge between the Silicon Valley ecosystem and Start - Ups.