South Korea is rethinking who gets to be an entrepreneur — and where. On March 25, Deputy Prime Minister Koo Yun-cheol chaired a high-level strategy session to launch Startup for All, a nationwide program that aims to open the doors to company-building far beyond the Seoul startup scene.

The push comes as policymakers grow increasingly concerned about what they call Korea’s ‘K-shaped’ growth — a deepening divide between large conglomerates and smaller businesses, and between the capital and everywhere else. Rather than waiting for that gap to close on its own, the government is making a deliberate bet: widen the startup base, and new industries and opportunities will follow.

From picking winners to backing potential

Most government startup programs work by selecting a small number of standout teams from a large competitive pool. Startup for All flips that logic. Instead of filtering down to a handful of winners, it aims to invest in entrepreneurial potential at scale.

In the program’s first phase, around 5,000 people will participate — from first-time founders to those taking another shot after a failed venture. Notably, more than 70% will come from outside the Seoul Metropolitan area, a pointed effort to ensure innovation takes root across the country, not just in the capital.

Support spans the full arc from early idea to growth-stage company. Participants get access to AI-powered tools built by Korean startups to help stress-test and sharpen their concepts — and the program’s own adoption of those tools is expected to give the domestic AI ecosystem a meaningful early customer. Regulatory friction, which often kills momentum at the earliest stages, will be tackled head-on through dedicated consulting before it becomes a problem.

A nationwide startup audition runs through the program, building from regional heats to a national finale. The top performers walk away with funding packages worth more than $667,000 (KRW 1 billion) and hands-on support for international expansion. For the final 100 founders, a dedicated $33.4 million (KRW 50 billion) fund puts serious capital on the table.

Stitching the ecosystem together

One of the program’s more ambitious goals is to connect what has historically been a fragmented support landscape. More than 100 incubators and accelerators — among them Primer, FuturePlay, Sopoong Ventures and KAIST — are signed on to identify and develop talent. Crucially, their incentives are tied to how their startups actually perform, not just whether they showed up.

The mentor side is equally impressive. Around 500 experienced founders — including those behind Toss, Wrtn Technologies and Rebellions — will take on formal mentoring roles, bringing the kind of hard-won, practical wisdom that no curriculum can replicate.

Connecting all of this is a new digital platform built to do more than handle paperwork. It’s designed as a living environment where founders, mentors and support organizations can interact in real time — sharing what they know, making introductions and helping each other move faster.

Giving failure its due

Perhaps the most telling aspect of Startup for All is how it treats founders who didn’t make it the first time. Rather than quietly moving on, the program formally acknowledges the attempt. Every participant receives a ‘challenge record’ — an official document of their entrepreneurial journey that carries weight in future applications for support.

Those who come back with new ideas get preferential consideration, a clear signal that the program sees iteration as a feature, not a workaround. The initiative also draws in talent spotted through other government programs — intellectual property competitions, AI challenges and more — building a cross-sector funnel into entrepreneurship that didn’t exist before.

Already in motion

The program launched simultaneously across all 17 of Korea’s regions on March 25, with events bringing together founders, mentors and supporting organizations in each location. The online platform and national recruitment opened the following day.

More is in the pipeline: sector-focused challenges covering AI transformation, defense tech and climate technology are on the way, alongside new programs designed to put startups at the center of local economic development.

If Startup for All delivers on its ambitions, the biggest shift may be cultural as much as economic — a Korea where starting a company is seen less as a risky gamble for a talented few, and more as a genuine path available to anyone with an idea and the drive to pursue it.