The Ministry of SMEs and Startups (MSS) of South Korea announced that COMEUP 2024, the country’s largest global startup festival, successfully concluded its two-day event at COEX in Seoul on December 12.

Now in its sixth year since launching in 2019, COMEUP 2024 featured participation from 260 startups, with international startups making up 58 percent (150 companies). Countries like the UAE, India, Japan, and Sweden set up national pavilions to promote their startups, marking the event’s largest scale yet and cementing its status as a truly global startup festival.

This year’s event was held under the theme “Innovation Beyond Borders,” highlighting the role of startups in driving innovation across industries and regions. The program focused on three core areas: deep tech, inbound innovation, and sustainable innovation by startups. The festival featured a wide range of activities, including exhibitions, conferences, keynote speeches, startup pitching sessions, open innovation programs, and legal consulting services.

The opening keynote speeches were delivered by Sung Hyun Park, CEO of Rebellions, an AI semiconductor startup that recently became the first Korean company to secure investment from Wa’ed Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of Saudi Aramco, and Soo Jong Kim, CEO of Innospace, a space launch vehicle company. Their talks centered on the themes of global collaboration and deep tech, capturing the audience’s attention.

The exhibition zones were designed to help attendees better understand innovations in deep tech. These zones featured key technologies like big data, AI, and bio-health. Among the highlights was the demonstration of Raibo2, a quadrupedal robot developed by Raion Robotics, one of the COMEUP Stars companies led by CEO Jaemin Hwangbo.

Beyond the main program, COMEUP 2024 offered specialized initiatives for startups. The Policy Promotion Pavilion introduced key Korean startup and venture policies, provided consultations on visa applications for foreign startups planning to settle in Korea, and attracted significant interest from international participants. 

The Startup Korea Pavilion served as a dedicated exhibition space for 20 international startups aiming to enter the Korean market. These startups had opportunities to showcase their business ideas to local startups and investors. Adding to its significance, the event included the participation of the CEO of AiMA Beyond AI, the first recipient of the newly launched Startup Korea Special Visa.

This year’s event also placed a strong emphasis on carbon neutrality. The Climate Tech session featured examples of collaboration between deep tech startups and large corporations in this field. A dedicated exhibition showcased success stories of open innovation in climate tech, and sessions such as reverse pitching and meetups between startups and established companies explored new paths for cooperation.

Several side events enriched the festival, including the “Challenge! K-Startup 2024 Grand Final,” the country’s largest startup competition co-organized by ten government ministries. Other highlights included the OI Ground session, which shared collaboration success stories between global corporations and startups, and the K-Startup Grand Challenge Demo Day, where foreign startups nurtured by Korean accelerators presented their ideas and received awards.

As Korea’s largest global startup festival, COMEUP 2024 saw record-breaking participation from stakeholders across the domestic and international startup ecosystems. It aims to continue serving as a global platform for exchange and collaboration in the years ahead.

Recordings of major events from COMEUP 2024 are available on the official COMEUP YouTube channel.