The Ministry of SMEs and Startups on Jan. 5 said it has announced this year's Startup Package "deep tech specialization type" and is recruiting promising early-stage and scale-up startup corporations. The application period runs from the 6th to the 27th.
The Startup Package is a program that, depending on a startup corporation's age, is composed of three stages—Pre-Startup Package (preparation stage), Early-Startup Package (within 3 years of founding), and Startup Leap Package (over 3 years and within 7 years)—and supports stage-specific startup programs such as mentoring and investment attraction along with commercialization funds.
The deep tech specialization type was newly established to support the startup ecosystem in deep tech fields, which require relatively more time and capital for validation and commercialization. It provides commercialization funds in fields such as big data and artificial intelligence (AI), biohealth, future mobility, eco-friendly energy, and robotics.
This year's Startup Package has been subdivided into deep tech specialization, general type, and investment-linked type. The plan is to provide startup support programs by considering not only company age but also industry characteristics and investment stage. The general type and investment-linked type will also be announced in sequence.
To realize balanced regional development and narrow the quality-of-life gap between regions, a regional preference policy was also introduced. For startup corporations outside the greater Seoul area, the government will raise the support ratio and ease corporations' matching burden by differentiating private cost-sharing rates according to regional classifications based on the level of regional development.
Applications can be submitted on the K-Startup website until 4 p.m. on the 27th. Afterward, through document and presentation evaluations, the final support recipients will be selected, and commercialization funds and other support will be provided.