The Ministry of SMEs and Startups and the Korea SMEs and Startups Agency (KOSME) said on the 19th that they held the "Regulatory Innovation KOSME-IR Mart" at Times Square in Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul, for corporations participating in the regulatory free zone.
The event was prepared to support private investment attraction for demonstration corporations in the regulatory free zone and the global innovation zone. The investor relations (IR) briefing, which began in 2022, marked its fifth edition this year. Based on regulatory exemptions, the event introduced new technologies that had been difficult to commercialize due to constraints in existing laws and systems, drawing strong interest from domestic investment institutions such as Sema Investment.
The six corporations selected to participate in the IR received support from the Korea SMEs and Startups Agency (KOSME) over the past month to strengthen their capabilities, including preparing investment attraction presentation materials (pitch deck). As a pre-program on the day of the event, a "pitching strategy special lecture" was held to share techniques for investment presentations.
At the main event, attended by Yang Gwang-seok, head of the Special Zone Innovation Planning Team at the Ministry of SMEs and Startups (MSS), Ban Jeong-sik, regional innovation director at the Korea SMEs and Startups Agency (KOSME), officials from the four regulatory free zones of Gangwon, North Gyeongsang, Daejeon and North Chungcheong, and officials from technoparks, demonstration corporations delivered their presentations. Corporations in the artificial intelligence (AI) and biotech sectors—including Recode, MarkHelz, CellapyBio, MCE, YouthBioGlobal and Tissen Biopharm—took part in the presentations.
In the subsequent one-on-one consultations with venture capital (VC) and accelerators (AC), investment reviews focused on demonstration outcomes based on regulatory exemptions, commercialization potential and market expansion strategies. Participating investment institutions provided feedback on the IR presentations and also shared views on the possibility of actual investment linkage.
Moon Sin-ja, CEO of CellapyBio, which is participating in the Daejeon Global Innovation Zone for advanced bio-manufacturing based on Synthetic Biology, said, "It is regrettable that research and development-focused small and midsize corporations have few opportunities to showcase their technological capabilities," adding, "This event went beyond evaluating investment potential and served as a chance to seek practical advice from investment institutions."
Yang Gwang-seok, head of the Special Zone Innovation Planning Team at the Ministry of SMEs and Startups (MSS), said, "The key actors in operating regulatory free zones are demonstration businesses, and demonstration businesses need commercialization support programs such as IR," adding, "Beyond revising government statutes, we will expand the base of regulatory free zones by strengthening support for the commercialization of demonstration technologies."
Ban Jeong-sik, regional innovation director at the Korea SMEs and Startups Agency (KOSME), said, "Follow-up commercialization support for demonstration technologies is like priming water for the growth of corporations participating in regulatory free zones," adding, "KOSME, together with the Ministry of SMEs and Startups (MSS), will design commercialization support programs such as investment attraction and policy linkages to back the growth of corporations participating in regulatory free zones."