The Ministry of Science and ICT is accelerating support to nurture promising artificial intelligence (AI) startups, backed by 1.2 trillion won in joint public-private investment funds.
The Ministry of Science and ICT said it held the "2026 K-AI Champions IR Day" at COEX in Seoul on the 23rd with the National IT Industry Promotion Agency (NIPA) and the Korea Association of ICT Companies, and launched support to attract investment by consolidation of promising AI corporations with fund managers.
The event was prepared to strategically match six startups that proved their technological prowess and business viability at last year's AI-ICT competition hosted by the Ministry of Science and ICT with private investors.
The Ministry of Science and ICT has secured a total investment fund of 1.2 trillion won, centered on the government-backed AI Innovation Fund and the Korea IT Fund (KIF) funded by the three mobile carriers, and plans to begin full-scale investment execution in the second half of this year. The plan is to directly consolidation government-discovered corporations with private capital to deliver investment outcomes.
At the event, six corporations—including Enhance, Allmytour, Crosshub, HeatMetricX, Terramime, and Serverkit—presented their technology road maps and global expansion strategies before more than 150 investment officials. A six-member venture capital expert judging panel, including Stick Ventures and Albatross Investment, reviewed corporate competitiveness focusing on technological originality, revenue model, and potential for overseas expansion, and conducted follow-up consultations.
The Ministry of Science and ICT also introduced a policy to support end-to-end growth of AI startups at the event. It plans to expand the joint public-private investment fund to 1.98 trillion won by June this year and support AI startups in securing business models and building global references.
In addition, more than 4,000 of the 10,000 government GPUs secured through last year's supplementary budget will be allocated to startups and others, and a new project supporting domestically produced NPUs will be promoted. Vice Minister Ryu Je-myung of the Ministry of Science and ICT said the ministry will make it a regular annual event for AI startups and investors to meet directly.