A total of 531 corporations applied for the second round of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups' "Jump-up Program." Among them, 198 corporations passed the first-stage review. The competition rate was about 2.7 to 1.
The Ministry of SMEs and Startups (MSS) said on the 22nd that it cleared the first hurdle after a comprehensive review of growth potential, technological strength, and innovation capacity. By sector, the distribution was even across advanced manufacturing and materials (30.8%), general manufacturing and services (31.8%), ICT and digital services (17.7%), and eco-friendly and smart infrastructure (19.7%).
These corporations will undergo second-stage evaluations through new-business plan presentations (PT) and expert discussions by the end of March. The Ministry of SMEs and Startups (MSS) plans to focus on verifying future growth potential to select the final cohort for the second round.
The Jump-up Program provides three years of close support with the aim of helping participants scale into global mid-sized corporations. It bundles the entire process from setting new-business strategies to management and technology advisory, open vouchers, investment attraction and overseas expansion networking, and linkage to policy funding.
Professional managers, global consulting firms, and research institutes take part, and policy institutions such as the Korea SMEs and Startups Agency (KOSME), the Korea Technology and Information Promotion Agency for SMEs (TIPA), the Korea Technology Finance Corporation (KOTEC), and the Korea Credit Guarantee Fund (KODIT) collaborate. The program's hallmark is that it aims to help with "growth design," not just simple financing.
Results from the first round were also presented. Electronics corporation SNS, advised by Samjong KPMG, signed a contract with Hyundai Mobis to supply more than 9 million communication control units (CCUs). Printing specialist corporation Wevling, with support from Boston Consulting Group, launched on Naver and the fashion platform ably. Functional footwear corporation Scholl's unveiled smart healthcare shoes using sensors from the Korea Institute of Industrial Technology (KITECH) and exhibited them at CES 2026.
It also offers an open voucher worth 250 million won per year that corporations can use at their discretion. A total of 873.3 billion won in policy funds—loan, guarantees, R&D, smart factories, export insurance, and P-CBO—was linked for support.
The Ministry of SMEs and Startups (MSS) plans to select 100 promising corporations every year. Kwon Sun-jae, MSS director for regional corporate policy, said, "It took root in the field within a year of launch," adding, "We will strengthen networking for overseas expansion and investment attraction to support the leap of small and mid-sized corporations."