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