The Ministry of SMEs and Startups (MSS) of South Korea announced on the 5th that it has selected 40 teams from 19 countries to receive domestic acceleration support among 1,716 teams from 114 countries that applied for the ‘K-Startup Grand Challenge 2024.’

The ‘K-Startup Grand Challenge‘ is a representative inbound program of the MSS that supports the establishment and settlement of foreign startup teams in Korea. Since 2016, the program has supported the establishment of 195 domestic corporations and the issuance of 364 startup visas.

From April to June 2024, the MSS opened applications for the ‘K-Startup Grand Challenge 2024,’ receiving applications from 1,716 teams from 114 countries, resulting in a high competition rate of 43:1. After document and presentation evaluations, 40 teams were finally selected.

By sector, 11 teams (27.5%) were in IT&SW, 10 teams (25.0%) in ESG&Green Tech, and 6 teams (15.0%) in Bio&Healthcare, indicating that foreign startup teams with competitiveness in new industries were ultimately selected. By continent, 22 teams (55.0%) were from Asia, 10 teams (25.0%) from Europe, and 8 teams (20.0%) from the Americas.

Starting in September, the MSS plans to provide domestic acceleration and participation support to the selected teams for approximately 3.5 months, as well as support for networking and mentoring with domestic companies.

Additionally, in conjunction with ‘COMEUP 2024’ to be held at COEX in December, the MSS will host a K-Startup Grand Challenge Demo Day and award a total of $400,000 in prize money to the top 5 teams. The top 20 teams will also receive additional domestic acceleration support.

Im Jung-wook, Director-General of the Startup Venture Innovation Division at the MSS, said, “Globalization is essential for the leap of Korea’s startup ecosystem, and to this end, the MSS is promoting various inbound policies this year, such as K-Scouters and Global Startup Centers.” He added, “We plan to actively support the domestic settlement of foreign startup teams discovered through the Grand Challenge in conjunction with the Global Startup Center, which opened in late July.”