The Gyeonggi Creative Economy Innovation Center (Gyeonggi CCEI) in Korea announced,on February 20, its achievements in investment in 2023 and its plan to intensively discover and invest in startups specializing in hyper-differentiation and deep tech.

Since its registration as an accelerator with the Ministry of SMEs and Startups in 2018, and the formation of an investment consortium in 2021, the Gyeonggi Innovation Center has enhanced its function as an investment institution. It was selected as a Mother Fund and a TIPS (Tech Incubator Program for Startup) operator within a year. Last year, it made investments totaling 6.33 billion KRW (approximately 4.7 million USD) in 37 companies, which marked a 284% increase in investment funds compared to the previous year.

The main areas of investment include AI, eco-friendly and energy, biohealth, system semiconductors, and robotics, focusing on early-stage promising companies in sectors of hyper-differentiation.

Out of the center’s cumulative portfolio of 63 companies (with a total investment of 9.29 billion KRW), 50 have been selected for the Ministry of SMEs and Startups’ private investment-led technology startup support program, TIPS. Among these, 16 startups (13 TIPS and 3 Deep Tech TIPS) have been produced by the Gyeonggi Innovation Center as a TIPS operator, achieving significant investment results linked to TIPS since last year.

The Gyeonggi Innovation Center supports its investment companies beyond the TIPS program by providing multi-faceted value-up support through major and medium-sized enterprise open innovation, global expansion, and follow-up investment attraction. Particularly, by utilizing the ‘Startup 815 IR’ investor relations (IR) program in stages such as Seed, Next, CVC (strategic investment), and Honors Club (follow-up investment), it has actively supported follow-up investments, attracting 5.97 billion KRW (approximately 4.4 million USD) in 2023, totaling 13.79 billion KRW (approximately 10.2 million USD).

Additionally, for globally promising startups among the investment companies, it successfully facilitated global investment attraction last year by connecting a company to the ’82 Startup’ accelerating program by global venture capital firm Primer Saze Partners. Based on this experience, the center plans to expand global investment attraction in 2024 through club deals (joint investments) with global VCs (including PRIMER SAZZE Partners) and to reinforce its role as a ‘Global Unicorn Startup Hub’ by supporting entry into foreign markets through global open innovation (collaboration with large and medium-sized enterprises).

Kim Won-kyung, the director of the Gyeonggi Innovation Center, stated, “In 2024, the Gyeonggi Innovation Center will continue to discover and invest in early-stage promising startups in sectors of hyper-differentiation and expand recommendations for TIPS companies. We will strengthen our network of field-specific experts and support systematic follow-up programs to lead to successful investment exits for technology companies.”