Korea Startup Accelerators and Early Stage Investors Association (K-AIA) held the "2026 Startup Investors Summit" on the 29th at the Asti Hotel in Busan. The event runs for two days through the 30th and is co-hosted by Busan Metropolitan City and the Busan Institute of Startup and Technology Investment. The summit, including the opening ceremony, runs until 6 p.m. that day.
The summit, held under the theme "Beyond investment capital, shaking the paradigm," was organized to seek a new turning point for Korea's startup and venture investment ecosystem amid a difficult environment of high interest rates, investment contraction, and global uncertainty. Key figures from domestic accelerators (ACs), venture capital firms (VCs), limited partners (LPs), and regional innovation agencies attended in large numbers.
Jeon Hwa-seong, K-AIA chair, said, "This year's AC fund size is expected to more than double from a year earlier, and the industry has entered a phase of quantitative and qualitative takeoff," adding, "ACs are more than simple investors; as architects of the ecosystem and trust infrastructure, it is time to prove a sustainable growth model on our own."
In the keynote session that day, Park Ji-woong, head of Fast Track Asia, will give a presentation on the theme "Ten years of company building: experiences and lessons." Park will share the scalability and accumulated experiences of the "company builder" approach, which designs business models, creates companies, and grows them, unlike the conventional VC-centered investment model. Fast Track Asia, a "startup holding company," has nurtured companies such as the coworking space "Fastfive," the adult education service "Day 1 Company," and the venture capital firm "Fast Ventures."
In the main session, Jeon Hwa-seong will give a presentation on "The AC market in 2026 and the next 10 years." Focusing on the recent trend in which the AC industry's roles are splitting into "VC-type," which handles scale-up investment based on large capital, and "general-type," which broadens the base of the ecosystem through discovering and nurturing early-stage corporations, the session will look ahead to structural changes in the investment ecosystem.
Next, Lee Yong-gwan of Bluepointpartners, Park Dae-hee of the Daejeon Center for Creative Economy and Innovation, Hong Jong-cheol of InfoBank IXEL, and Myeong Seung-eun of VentureSquare will join a discussion on the past 10 years of early-stage startup investment and shifts in the venture investment paradigm.
In the special session, Song Kang-guk, Deputy Minister at the Busan Institute of Startup and Technology Investment, will present a blueprint for "global startup city Busan." He will explain its role as a regional startup and investment agency that integrates startup support, investment, space, and global linkages into a single system, and share tailored support strategies for each startup stage.
In the final LP session that day, local governments including Busan Metropolitan City, the Korea Venture Investment Corporation, and the Agricultural Policy Insurance & Finance Service (APFS) will share directions and policy stances for the 2026 commitment programs. In addition, Mirae Science and Technology Holdings and Rising S Ventures will introduce the status and strategies of their secondary funds and continue discussions on revitalizing the exit market and establishing a virtuous cycle of funds.