The Ministry of SMEs and Startups said on the 27th that it is recruiting startup companies to join the global corporations collaboration program "AroundX" through Mar. 16.
AroundX is an open innovation program in which the government and global leading corporations work together to support the growth and overseas expansion of domestic startups. It began in 2019 as a "global corporations collaboration program" with one company, Google Play, and later expanded the participating corporations, with 13 global corporations joining last year. They are Google Play, Nvidia, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, Dassault Systèmes, Ansys, Siemens, Oracle, IBM, Intel, L'Oréal, Thales, and Air Liquide.
This year, four corporations including OpenAI, Mercedes-Benz Korea, Astellas, and HP are newly joining. A total of 17 global corporations will participate in AroundX. The Ministry of SMEs and Startups (MSS) plans to expand the scale of support this year and select a total of 403 startup companies.
The Ministry of SMEs and Startups (MSS) will operate the program from this year by dividing it into the AC track (accelerating) and the OI track (open innovation).
The AC track provides tailored incubation programs to participating corporations by leveraging the infrastructure and expertise held by global corporations. The OI track is structured to discover startups that can collaborate with global corporations and pursue joint proof of concept (PoC) and research and development (R&D). When specific collaboration tasks are derived, follow-up support is also provided through the second-year OI program.
Corporations finally selected for AroundX receive up to 200 million won in commercialization funding. They can also take part in technical training, consulting, and overseas market development programs provided by global corporations.
Minister Han Seong-sook of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups (MSS) said, "We will actively work with global corporations seeking to collaborate with K-startups and accelerate the nurturing of deep-tech startups."