The venture business community joined forces with the goal of leaping to become one of the four leading venture powerhouses.
Five major venture groups, including the Korea Women Venture Association, the Venture Business Association, the Korea Venture Capital Association, the Korea Startup Accelerators and Early Stage Investors Association (K-AIA), and the Korea Startup Forum, held the "2026 New Year's gathering of the innovative venture community" at EL Tower in Yangjae-dong, Seoul, on the 22nd.
Held under the theme "a leap forward for the innovative venture community to become one of the four leading venture powerhouses," the New Year's gathering drew about 200 attendees, including Minister Han Seong-sook of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, heads of the five venture groups, and venture entrepreneurs. The participants reaffirmed their commitment to lead innovative growth in the venture ecosystem through mutual cooperation and solidarity.
The event was held under the slogan "Innovative ventures, a growing Korea." The program began with New Year's greetings from Seong Mi-suk, head of the Korea Women Venture Association, followed by congratulatory remarks from Minister Han Seong-sook, an innovative venture New Year vision keynote, a New Year ceremony, and networking.
In her New Year's message, Seong said, "In step with the government's strategy to 'leap to become one of the four leading venture powerhouses,' we will lead a dramatic surge in our economy based on the diversity of the innovative venture ecosystem." She added, "We will strengthen our role as a bridge for public-private communication so that government policy and the corporate field are organically connected to produce tangible results," and emphasized, "We will focus all our capabilities on helping innovative venture leaders take pride, take on challenges, and make new history."
Seong also said, "So that women-led ventures and startups do not miss the golden time for fundraising, we will build a strong investment bridge," and added, "We will prepare practical breakthroughs to secure a competitive edge in the global market."
In her congratulatory remarks, Minister Han Seong-sook reiterated the government's "measures to leap to become one of the four leading venture powerhouses," released in Dec. last year. Han said, "It is a national strategy to leap to a new venture nation that grows beyond unicorns into K-big tech, based on 30 years of venture achievements," and added, "We will foster an investment ecosystem where risk capital leads to innovation and build a virtuous-cycle startup environment that connects startup, growth, and re-challenge, centered on technology and deep-tech entrepreneurship." She went on to say, "We will work to build advanced startup hubs so that regions can also challenge the world."
In the subsequent "innovative venture New Year vision keynote" session, the heads of the co-hosting organizations took the stage to present each association's core strategies and execution plans to help Korea "leap to become one of the four leading venture powerhouses."
Song Byeong-jun, head of the Venture Business Association, said, "We are in an era when the achievements of Korea's ventures become the nation's competitiveness," and added, "By expanding venture finance and supporting scale-ups, we will raise on-the-ground execution so ventures with growth potential can secure global competitiveness." He continued, "We will contribute to the leap to become one of the four leading venture powerhouses by creating a structure in which investment and growth form a virtuous cycle."
Kim Hak-kyun, head of the Korea Venture Capital Association, said, "By expanding investment funding sources and improving exit conditions, we will create an efficient innovation ecosystem in which investment leads to venture growth and growth in turn connects back to investment." He added, "We will use policy finance as a primer to attract private capital inflows, and normalize the virtuous-cycle investment structure by creating a KOSDAQ activation fund and revitalizing mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and the secondary market."
Jeon Hwa-seong, head of the Korea Startup Accelerators and Early Stage Investors Association (K-AIA), emphasized, "Now that K-startups are drawing attention in the global market, accelerators that support the start and leap of very early-stage startups will become the key to building a sustainable startup ecosystem," and added, "We will lead a healthy startup ecosystem by expanding investment diversity, improving regulations, and improving early investment exit conditions."
Han Sang-woo, chair of the Korea Startup Forum, said, "2026 is a time when execution and outcomes become even more important," and added, "As a partner in the national strategy that designs the era of global AI transformation (AX), the Korea Startup Forum will become an execution platform where startups can prove AI transformation and global expansion on the ground." He continued, "We will strengthen our role in connecting policy, industry, and global so that entrepreneurship becomes not a choice for the few but Korea's next growth engine."
At the event, representing venture companies, Kim Hyo-yi, CEO of Innersia, took the stage as a speaker and gave a lecture on global partnerships and overseas expansion strategies in the bio and eco-friendly materials sectors. Innersia is a FemTech startup, and Kim was selected for Forbes Korea's "30 Under 30" in 2024. In the lecture, Kim emphasized the importance of building business models based on market demand and preempting global technology standards, and shared ways for women-led ventures to achieve sustainable growth and global scale-up.