The Ministry of SMEs and Startups met with domestic startup corporations that have entered Silicon Valley in the United States to review the status of Korean startups' expansion into the U.S. and discussed policy directions for overseas expansion and scaling up.
The Ministry of SMEs and Startups (MSS) said on the 11th that it held a roundtable on the 8th-9th (local time) in Silicon Valley, San Francisco, meeting with startup corporations and experts active locally and visiting the deep-tech startup "ImpriMed" as part of on-site engagement.
At the Silicon Valley venture-startup roundtable held on the 8th, attendees included First Vice Minister No Yong-seok of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups (MSS), the director-general for venture policy, representatives of corporations that have entered the local market and locally founded startups, and experts from academia, the legal community, and industry. Participants shared the process and challenges of Korean startups entering the U.S. market and exchanged views on the government's support direction.
The roundtable identified as key tasks: ▲ building a support system to respond to U.S. local legal issues ▲ supporting the securing of references in the U.S. market ▲ strengthening cooperation networks with global conglomerates. Practical issues regarding regulatory and market entry barriers encountered in the early stages of entering Silicon Valley were also discussed.
Vice Minister No said, "This roundtable was an opportunity to hear directly from local U.S. experts and businesspeople," adding, "We will improve the effectiveness of our policies by reflecting on-the-ground opinions."
On the 9th, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups (MSS) visited ImpriMed, a locally based startup corporation in the United States, toured its research facilities, and listened to challenges faced in the process of commercializing technology in the global market. ImpriMed is a corporation with technology that combines biological analysis and artificial intelligence (AI) to predict the efficacy of personalized anticancer drugs, and it is commercializing Precision Medicine services for companion animals in the United States.
Vice Minister No said, "We will continue policy support so that corporations with technological competitiveness like ImpriMed can grow in the global market."
The San Francisco visit took place over one night and two days and included, in addition to the roundtable and corporate visit, a presentation on venture policy direction at the "UKF 82 Startup Summit" of the United Korean Founders and attendance at the opening ceremony of the Startup-Venture Campus (SVC).