The Ministry of SMEs and Startups said on the 11th it opened the Startup Venture Campus (SVC), a global base to support Korean ventures and startups expanding into the United States, in Silicon Valley.
SVC is a space established in Silicon Valley, where global big tech, large corporations, and investors are concentrated, and will support Korean ventures and startups with local settlement and scale-up. Korea Venture Investment Corporation, Korea SMEs and Startups Agency (KOSME), Korea Institute of Startup and Entrepreneurship Development (KISED), Korea Technology Finance Corporation (KOTEC), and private venture capital (VC) firms will move in.
The Ministry of SMEs and Startups (MSS) said that over the past two years, private experts and support agencies participated to set the direction of operations, and it discussed program development, infrastructure sharing, and investment cooperation plans with private institutions and corporations expanding locally, including the Asan Nanum Foundation, Naver, and Hyundai Motor.
At SVC, in-house programs run by resident institutions will operate alongside joint programs in collaboration with the Asan Nanum Foundation, Naver, and Hyundai Motor. Each year, it will offer dedicated programs for more than 200 Korean ventures, startups, and VCs, and it will also provide workspaces that can be used for medium- to long-term U.S. expansion or short business trips.
About 200 businesspeople and investors from Korea and abroad attended the opening ceremony, including Vice Minister Noh Yong-seok of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups (MSS), Consul General Lim Jeong-taek in San Francisco, officials from resident support organizations, and officials from the Asan Nanum Foundation, Naver, and Hyundai Motor.
The Silicon Valley SVC is the first case of integrating the Ministry of SMEs and Startups (MSS)'s overseas bases that had been run separately as the Korea Startup Center (KSC) and Global Business Center (GBC). It is also the first case of installing overseas the Startup One-stop Support Center, which operates at 17 locations in Korea. The ministry plans to expand SVC to major global innovation hubs such as Japan and Singapore.
On the day, an MOU among resident support organizations, cooperation MOUs between resident institutions and the Asan Nanum Foundation, Naver, and Hyundai Motor, and a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between Korea Venture Investment Corporation and Naver were signed. Public-private cooperation such as joint investment, startup exchanges, and joint investor relations (IR) is expected to gain momentum.
After the opening ceremony, Vice Minister Noh held a meeting with startups and VCs scheduled to move into SVC, heads of resident support organizations, and officials from private partner institutions to discuss ways to use and vitalize SVC. Twenty Korean startups and VCs will move into SVC and receive support through dedicated programs.
Applications to use SVC workspaces will be available through the SVC website, which is scheduled to open in Jan. 2026. Corporations can inquire through Korea SMEs and Startups Agency (KOSME), and VCs can inquire through the Korea Venture Capital Association.
Meanwhile, on the same day, Vice Minister Noh attended the Korean Founders Union (UKF) 82 Startup Summit held at the Fox Theater in Silicon Valley, introduced Korean venture policies, and discussed cooperation plans with the Korean founder network in the United States. The UKF Startup Summit has been held annually since 2023 and is the largest Korean venture and startup event in the United States.
Vice Minister Noh said, "With the AI and deep tech industries at the center, ventures and startups are emerging as key players in the global economy," adding, "Using SVC as a base, we will work with the Korean founder community to support the expansion of the domestic startup ecosystem and overseas expansion."